V 

FEB  25  1898  "^ 


-^ficalSe^ 


BV  2063  .M15  1897 
Mackenzie,  W.  Douglas  1859 

1936. 
Christianity  and  the 

p  r  oar  e  ss_of  _man__ 


Christianity 

and  the 

Progress    of  Man 

As  Illustrated 
by  Modern  Missions 


By  W.  Douglas  Mackenzie 

Professor  in  Chicago  Theological  Seminary 


Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 
Chicago     : :     New     York     : :     Toronto 

Publishers  of  E'vangelical  Literature 


Copyrighted  i8^y,  by  Fleming  H.  Rev  ell  Company 


DEDICATED 

TO 

MY   FATHER,    JOHN   MACKENZIE 

AND 

ELLEN   MACKENZIE,    MY   MOTHER — 

WHO    HAVE    LABORED     TOGETHER    AS 

MISSIONARIES   OF   JESUS   CHRIST 

IN 

SOUTH   AFRICA 

FOR 

THE   PAST   FORTY   YEARS. 


PREFACE. 

We  begin  to  speak  with  increasing  frequency  of 
the  characteristic  events  and  changes  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  as  it  draws  rapidly  to  its  close. 
Two  of  the  greatest  facts,  I  ought  to  say  the  two 
greatest  facts,  are  undoubtedly  the  unification  of 
the  race  and  the  establishment  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion as  a  working  force  among  nearly  all  nations. 
The  two  facts  are  closely  related  both  in  nature 
and  history.  How  the  one  universalistic  religion 
has  been  molding  the  life  of  the  one  race  of  man- 
kind during  the  nineteenth  century — that  is  the 
subject  of  this  little  book. 

My  obligations  to  friends  and  authors  are  nu- 
merous. The  works  to  which  I  owe  most  are,  the 
great  missionary  biographies  of  Dr.  George  Smith, 
the  remarkable  "  Keport  of  the  Missionary  Confer- 
ence, London,  1888  "  (which  I  cite  by  the  abbre- 
viation, "L.  M.  C"),  and  Mr.  Edwin  Hodder's 
comprehensive  history  of  modern  missions  enti- 
tled, **  The  Conquests  of  the  Cross."  Of  course 
there  is  a  large  amount  of  missionary  literature  to 
which  I  am  indebted  which  it  is  needless  to  specify. 

w.  D.   M. 

Chicago  Theological  Seminary^ 
June  22nd,  1897. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


chapter.  page 

Preface 
I  Introduction  9 

II  The   Universalism  of  Christianity      ...       21     i/ 

III  The  Missionary  as  Pioneer:  the  Unity  of  the 

Race 43 

IV  The  Missionary  as  Translator:  the  Bible  and 

THE  World 57 

V  The  Missionary  and  Education     ....  86 

VI  The  Missionary  and  Self-sacrifice:  the  Value 

OF  Martyrdom 106 

VII  The  Missionary  and  Civilization      .     .     .        135    v 
VIII  The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions     .     .      163 

IX  The  Missionary  as  Savior 194 

X  Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man     .        213 


CHAPTER  I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

The  aim  of  the  following  chapters  may  be  brief- 
ly described  thus.  We  have  seen  in  recent  years 
a  revival  of  interest  in  the  problem  of  religion. 
Books  and  essays  have  appeared  which  indicate 
that  the  superficial  judgment  of,  say,  twenty  years 
ago,  which  relegated  religion  to  the  region  of  the 
superstitious  and  the  irrational,  is  being  aban- 
doned. The  mood  has  changed.  Few  people  now 
think  that  religion,  that  the  Christian  religion,  can 
be  removed  from  the  field  of  intellectual  discus- 
sion without  serious  injury  to  other  departments 
of  science  and  philosophy.  This  change  of  atti- 
tude is  due  to  various  influences,  of  which  I  shall 
name  three. 

On  the  one  hand  we  find  that  the  over=  confi- 
dence of  the  Positivists  and  the  Agnostics  has  dis- 
appeared. Their  philosophy  is  not  final.  Their 
characteristic  theories  of  knowledge,  of  evolution, 
of  reality,  have  by  no  means  solved  the  problems 
presented  by  human  nature  and  history.  Their 
failure  suggests  to  many  minds  the  idea  that  after 
all,  the  assertions  of  the  Christian  religion  at 
which  they  were  wont  to  gird  most  vigorously, 
may  be  true.  At  any  rate  not  one  of  these  funda- 
mental assertions  has  been  really  disproved.  On 
the  other  hand  the  deeper  study  of  the  history  of 

9 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

man  is  making  more  apparent  every  day  the  pro- 
found, nay,  the  organic  place  which  religion  occu- 
pies in  the  evolution  of  society.  This  is  one  re- 
sult of  the  Science  of  Comparative  Religion,  es- 
pecially as  it  reveals  its  almost  constant  and  intri- 
cate relations  with  the  evolution  of  society  and 
hence  with  the  still  inchoate  Science  of  Sociology, 
whose  object  is  to  understand  that  evolution.  Ev- 
en Mr.  Herbert  Spencer  recognizes  this  and  traces 
many  mistakes  in  sociological  reasonings  to  the 
influence  of  the  "  anti=theological  bias."  "  Ignor- 
ing the  truth  for  which  religions  stand,"  he  says, 
"it  (this  bias)  undervalues  religious  institutions 
in  the  past,  thinks  they  are  useless  in  the  present, 
and  expects  they  vv^ill  leave  no  representatives  in 
the  future."  ^  Mr.  Benjamin  Kidd  has  done  good 
service  by  the  vigorous  protest  which  he  enters 
against  the  folly  of  neglecting  the  study  of  religion 
as  a  "  true  cause  "  in  social  evolution.  Now  in  the 
third  place,  this  change  of  attitude  regarding  re- 
ligion seems  to  be  accounted  for  largely  by  the  ar- 
dor with  which  the  Church  of  Christ  has  extend- 
ed and  deepened  its  influence  during  this  century. 
We  have  before  us  a  spectacle  which,  looked  at 
from  any  point  of  view,  must  be  called  sublime. 
From  being  on  the  whole  a  European  religion 
Christianity  has  begun  in  this  century  to  deserve 
the  name  of  "  world-religion."  In  Great  Britain 
and  America  it  appears  to  be  as  vigorous,  and  as 
thorough  in  its  influence  as  ever  it  was.     There  it 


The  study  of  Sociology."     p.  812. 
10 


Introdudion 

is  coping  with  forces  which  never  before  met  it  in 
such  power  and  intensity.     They  are  the  creation 
of  that  freedom  of  thought,  that  freedom  of  action, 
that  marvelous  development  of   industry   and   its 
correlative  passion  for  amusement  and  recreation, 
which  characterize  especially  the  English-speak- 
ing world,  and  which  in  their  combination  are  par- 
alleled  in   no   earlier   period   of   history.     If   the 
Church  seems  to  have  lost  its  hold  on  some   sec- 
tions of  society,  it  has  yet  more  than  maintained 
its  own  life  of  faith  and  its  determination  to  pene- 
trate all  industry  and  politics  and  recreation  with 
the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.     A  temporary  and  par- 
tial "  set-back,"  which  must  be  admitted,  is  being 
made  the  occasion  for  a  stronger  exertion   of   its 
characteristic  forces.     Few  will  be  inclined  to  af- 
firm that  at  any  earlier  time  the  masses  of  the  peo- 
ple  manifested  more  of   intelligent  faith   in   the 
gospel,  or  more  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
their  social   and   political   ideals,   however   much 
there  may  be  yet  to  attain. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  in  the  work  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions that  the  Church  has  done  most  to  prove  its 
social  influence.  For  Christianity  is  now  at  work 
practically  in  every  land.  Amongst  rude  savages 
and  under  the  shadow  of  hoary  oriental  institu- 
tions it  is  seeking  to  establish  itself.  And  its  suc- 
cess has  been  so  remarkable,  its  religious  and  so- 
cial influence  so  undeniable,  that  every  thoughtful 
man  who  had  rejected  its  claims,  is  bound,  in  the 
mere  name  of  his  intellectual  integrity,  to  pause 

and  face  the  facts  afresh. 

11 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

But,  if  religion  holds  an  organic  place  in  the  evo- 
lution of  society,  do  we  not  have  before  us  an  oppor- 
tunity for  studying  its  influence  which  no  other  gen- 
eration may  enjoy  in  the  same  way?  We  can  see 
with  our  own  eyes  a  superior  religion  as  it  comes  in 
upon  lower  forms  of  social  organization,  abolishes 
their  evils,  corrects  their  defects,  and  begins  the  de- 
velopment of  all  that  is  best  in  the  ripest  forms 
of  civilization.  In  ordinary  conditions,  where  a 
religion,  whether  Christianity,  or  any  other,  has 
been  long  established,  its  influence  is  more  subtle 
and  more  intricate;  it  is  less  easy  to  separate  out 
the  actual  effects,  good  or  bad,  of  the  religion  itself 
from  those  produced  by  collateral  causes.  But  in  the 
phenomena  presented  by  Christian  missions  the  stu- 
dent of  sociology  has  the  task  wonderfully  simplified. 
He  can  watch  the  transformations  of  society,  as 
they  proceed  with  a  rapidity  which  Europe  has  not 
seen  since  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  Even  at 
that  time  the  European  tribes  and  nations  did  not 
move  so  fast  towards  Christian  ideals  of  society  as 
many  in  other  regions  are  moving  to-day;  for  then 
there  did  not  exist  a  Church  with  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  of  experience  to  make  it  strong  and 
clear  and  wise  in  the  avoidance  of  dangers,  and  in 
the  pursuit  of  its  true  goal  along  paths  which  are 
safe  for  Church  and  State.  The  gathered  wisdom 
and  power  of  all  these  centuries  is  now  being  con- 
centrated by  the  Church  upon  the  deliverance  of 
all  tribes  and  races  out  of  barbarism  into  the  pos- 
session of  Christian  institutions.  This  is  true 
even  though  we  believe  that  the  Church  is  by  no 

12 


Introdudion 

means   yet  perfected  in  wisdom  and  that  not  all 
its  representatives  abroad  are  worthy  of  its  ideal. 

In  the  following  pages  an  attempt  is  made  to 
outline  the  kind  of  facts  which  belong  to  the 
history  of  missions  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
and  which  throw  light  upon  the  action  of 
Christianity  among  heathen  and  Moslem  peoples.* 
Briefly  put  the  argument  runs  in  this  way.  We 
find  that  the  Christian  when  compared  with  other 
religions  is  the  only  one  which  is  inherently  ca- 
pable of  becoming  universal.  It  is  worth  while  to 
inquire  into  those  elements  in  the  religion  of  Eev- 
elation  which  fit  it  to  be  the  religion  of  the  race 
and  which  are  steadily  molding  history  towards 
that  end.  (Chapter  II.)  During  the  nineteenth 
century  this  capacity  has  been  put  to  the  test 
among  almost  every  people  upon  earth,  and  in 
competition  with  every  form  and  grade  of  social 
and  religious  organization.  What  is  called  the 
"missionary  movement"  is  the  means  through 
which  the  battle  is  carried  on.  The  result  is 
that  we  see  this  religious  impulse  occupying, 
not  the  sole,  but  the  supreme  place  in  the  work 
of  unifying  the  race  and  exalting  the  conditions 
of  life.  This  is  done  by  the  pioneer  work  of 
the  missionary  (Chapter  III);  by  the  marvelous 
process  of  Bible  translation  through  which  one 
universal  basis  and  permanent  standard  of  relig- 
ious experience  is  being  given  to  all  mankind 
(Chapter  IV);  by  popular  education  which  is 
provided  always  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  mis- 
sionary movement,  which   thus   springs  from  the 

13 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

religious  impulse  and  is  sustained  by  the  pe- 
culiar ideals  of  the  Christian  religion  (Chap- 
ter V);  by  the  influence  of  that  noble  spirit 
of  self-sacrifice  for  benevolent  ends  which  is  the 
unique  possession  of  this  religion,  which  lies 
at  the  root  of  self^discipline  and  reaches  its  sub- 
lime expression  in  martyrdom  (Chapter  VI);  by 
the  immediate  effect  which  conversion  to  Christ 
begins  to  produce  upon  personal  character,  family 
relationship,  and  thus  upon  social  life  and  civili- 
zation (Chapter  VII);  by  the  influence  which  the 
Christian  system  exerts  upon  preceding  religions 
of  all  kinds,  rebuking  and  gradually  putting  to 
an  end  what  is  false  or  incomplete,  inept  or  peril- 
ous, and  glorifying  whatsoever  is  true  and  health- 
ful and  inspiring  (Chapter  VIII).  In  these  chap- 
ters it  is  necessary  to  assert  from  various  points  of 
view  one  fact  which,  however,  needs  to  be  espe- 
cially emphasized.  It  is  this.  The  processes,  in- 
fluences, or  results  of  Christian  missions  cannot  be 
understood  or  explained  without  taking  continual 
account  of  the  purely  religious  element  or  purpose 
which  underlies  them  all.  The  missionary  avow- 
edly goes  as  a  savior,  to  bring  men  into  that  which 
is  the  central  feature  of  Christianity,  viz.,  the  ex- 
perience of  personal  fellowship  with  God  through 
faith  in  the  Savior,  Jesus  Christ.  The  missionary 
and  the  convert,  of  every  age  and  clime,  assert  that 
the  personal  and  the  social  effects  described  above 
only  follow  this  experience;  and  on  that  moment- 
ous affirmation  Apostolic  Christianity  is  at  one 
with  the  young  Church  of  Polynesia,  Africa  and 

14 


Introdudion 

Asia  to-day.  (Chapter  IX.)  In  the  last  chapter  I 
try  to  draw  out  and  summarize  the  significance 
of  the  movement  which  has  thus  been  described. 
The  progress  of  man  is  a-  phrase  not  easy  to  de- 
fine, but  it  represents  something  real  and  Chris- 
tianity appears  to  be  intimately  bound  up  with 
it.  It  must  be  possible  to  dissipate  some  of  the 
vagueness  which  generally  envelopes  our  idea  of 
human  progress  and  to  state  some  of  its  elements. 
It  must  be  also  possible  to  set  down  some  of  the 
main  characteristics  of  the  influence  which  the 
one  universal  religion  is  exercising  upon  the 
race  of  mankind.  And  perhaps  this  view  of 
the  interdependence  of  human  progress  and  the 
Christian  faith  may  help  us  to  decide  whether 
that  faith  is  false  or  true.     (Chapter  X.) 

There  is  one  matter  connected  with  the  follow- 
ing chapters  to  which  I  must  briefly  refer.  It 
will  be  noticed  that  little  or  nothing  is  said  about 
the  faults  and  failures  of  individual  missions  and 
missionaries;  and  some  may  imagine  it  to  be  sug- 
gested that  there  have  been  none.  That  would  of 
course  be  absurd.  I  can  adopt  the  language  of 
Bishop  Westcott  when  he  says:  "I  will  admit  to 
the  full  the  fewness,  the  weakness,  the  errors,  the 
frailties,  if  you  please,  of  the  workers."  But  the 
Bishop  also  says:  "When  I  see  the  results  which 
have  been  x^roduced  I  am  startled,  touched,  hum- 
bled by  the  wholly  disproportionate  magnitude  of 
what  has  been  done  when  compared  with  the 
means  which  have  been  used  to  effect  it."  The 
fact  is  that  missionaries  have  manifested  various 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

degrees  of  ability,  devotion,  diligence,  piety,  self- 
sacrifice.  Some  have  possessed  elements  of  dis- 
position and  character,  and  defects  of  training, 
which  either  prevented  or  lessened  the  success  of 
their  work.  A  few  have  proved  to  be  total  failures. 
The  same  things  must  be  said  about  individual 
converts  from  heathenism  and  the  churches  which 
they  form.  Some  of  the  complaints  which  travel- 
ers and  others  make  concerning  the  imperfect 
characters  of  many  native  Christians  are  no  doubt 
founded  upon  actual  failure  on  the  i)art  of  the  lat- 
ter to  manifest  the  pure  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
The  apostle  Paul  found  the  same  facts  in  the 
churches  of  Galatia  and  Corinth. 

There  are  two  classes  of  men  whom  one  finds  em- 
phasizing these  defects  and  failures.  The  one 
class  consists  of  shallow  scoffers  at  missions  and 
even  at  Christianity;  the  other  class  consists  of 
earnest  Christians  who  view  defect  and  failure, 
among  missionaries  and  converts  alike,  as  a  dis- 
honor to  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  the  man 
who  desires  to  treat  the  matter  scientifically  has 
no  right  to  be  influenced  by  this  strange  concur- 
rence in  opinion  of  opposing  classes  of  men. 
Neither  the  hackneyed  superficialities  of  the 
scoffer  nor  the  spiritual  criticisms  of  the  saint, 
ought  to  influence  our  judicial  estimate  of  the 
actual  work  done  by  the  Christian  Religion. 
Christianity  never  professed  to  be  a  force  work- 
ing in  a  vacuum.  It  is  a  force  among  forces  suf- 
fering friction,  reaction  and  direct  collision  of  all 
kinds.     Hence  the  history  of  its   effects  must  in- 

16 


Introdudion 

elude,  as  Church  History  confessedly  does,  the 
record  of  many  fierce  conflicts,  of  periods  when 
movement  was  slow,  of  those  when  there  seemed 
to  be  an  arrest  of  progress,  as  well  as  of  those 
when  advance  was  rapid  and  triumphant.  But  no 
student  of  evolution  would  maintain  that  the  signs 
and  incidents  of  the  struggle  for  existence  lessen 
the  significance  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
Rather  will  he  consider  that  they  help  to  empha- 
size the  inherent  vitality  of  that  form  of  life  which 
has  triumphed.  It  is  the  aim  of  these  pages  to 
describe  what  the  missionary  movement  has  act- 
ually achieved,  to  emphasize  the  positive  aspects  of 
the  warfare  which  is  going  on  between  human 
nature  and  the  forces  of  this  wondrous  fact  called 
the  Grospel  of  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  closing  chap- 
ter something  will  be  said  regarding  the  con- 
ditions which  render  its  progress  gradual,  and 
hence  any  one  of  its  stages  in  the  individual  or  in 
the  community  both  morally  and  spiritually  im- 
perfect. 

In  attempting  to  present  the  evidence  for  my 
conclusions  in  the  following  chapters  nothing  like 
a  full  account  of  the  facts  has  been  aimed  at.  To 
describe  the  phenomena  of  missionary  experience 
with  anything  like  completeness  would  require  the 
prolonged  labors  of  a  specialist  in  this  wide  and 
ever  extending  field.^     My  aim  has  been  to  draw 


^  Since  these  chapters  were  written  I  have  been  allowed  to 
see  the  proof=sheets  of  part  of  a  work  which  exactly  answers 
the  description  suggested  above.  It  is  entitled,  "  Christian 
Missions  and  Social  Progress."     (Fleming  H.  Revell  Com- 

17 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

illustrations  from  various  countries  and  the  work 
of  various  societies.  These  illustrations  are  not  to 
be  considered  as  in  themselves  alone  affording 
final  proof;  they  derive  their  evidential  strength 
from  the  fact  that  they  are  typical.  No  one  inci- 
dent or  experience  in  these  pages  stands  alone  in 
the  history  of  modern  missions.  Each  might  be 
easily  multiplied  over  and  over  again,  and  most 
could  be  multiplied  a  hundred  or  a  thousand  times 
by  any  one  who  cared  to  scan  the  pages  of  maga- 
zines, reports  and  books  with  that  end  in  view. 

In  order  to  make  the  mass  of  evidence  which 
lies  behind  the  arguments  from  missionary  expe- 
rience appear  in  its  true  proportions  the  reader 
should  keep  the  following  facts  in  mind: 

1.  As  to  the  geographical  extent  of  missionary 
operations.  Dr.  George  Smith  several  years  ago 
said  that  there  were  "  five  great  regions  of  the 
world  as  yet  totally  unreached  by  the  missionary."  ^ 
These  are  Thibet  and  High  Asia,  Arabia,  The  Sou- 
dan, Amazonia,  Russia  in  Asia.  Now  this  state- 
ment means  that,  if  we  subtract  these  regions,  the 
rest  of  the  world  is  open  to,  and  is  being  occupied 


pany.)  The  author,  the  Rev.  J.  S.  Dennis,  D.  D.,  is  indeed  a 
specialist  in  this  department  and  has  spared  neither  time, 
energy,  nor  expense  to  make  his  work  as  complete  as  possi- 
ble. The  bibliographies  attached  to  the  various  chapters 
are  extensive,  the  summation  of  facts  elaborate,  and  the 
tables  of  statistics  with  which  the  second  volume  is  to  con- 
clude will  certainly  be  the  most  exhaustive  which  have  ap- 
peared in  relation  to  the  work  of  foreign  missions. 
^  In  "  Missions  at  Home  and  Abroad,"  p.  146, 
18 


Introdudion 

with  great  rapidity  by,  the  missionary  agencies. 
China  is  not,  of  course,  adequately  occupied,  nor 
India,  nor  Africa.  But  these  portions  of  the  world 
are  open  and  in  them  missionary  effort  is  steadily 
spreading  year  by  year.  No  one  doubts  that  in  a 
few  years  all  the  lands  named  by  Dr.  George 
Smith,  except  Russia  in  Asia,  will  be  penetrated 
by  evangelical  missionaries. 

2.  Nor  is  the  army  of  workers  merely  sporadic. 
However  inadequate  it  may  be  when  compared 
with  the  work  which  has  yet  to  be  done,  no  one 
can  fail  to  be  impressed  by  its  vast  extent  when 
considered  in  itself,  and  in  relation  to  the  short 
period  of  one  hundred  years  during  which  it  has 
grown.  One  writer  puts  the  matter  thus:  "  Chris- 
tendom is  represented  in  heathendom  by  about 
11,450  Europeans  and  Americans  of  both  sexes 
Of  these  about  4,300  are  ordained,  something  less 
than  1,000  are  unordained,  3,650  are  wives,  and 
2,575  are  unmarried  women.  With  these  are  asso- 
ciated 4,200  ordained  and  43,000  unordained  na- 
tives toiling  as  pastors,  evangelists,  teachers,  etc 
The  entire  missionary  force  numbers  not  far  from 
55,000." ' 

According  to  Dr.  Vahl,  one  of  the  leading  au- 
thorities on  missionary  statistics,  the  following 
were  the  figures  for  the  year  1893 :  ^     There  were 


^  "  A  Hundred  Years  of  Missions,"  by  Rev.  D.  L.  Leonard 
(Funk  and  Wagnalls),  p.  417. 

2  Missions  to  the  Heathen  in  1892  and  1893.     A  Statistical 
Review.     (Copenhagen:  Fr.  Berthelsen.) 

19 


Chrltslanity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

in  existence  331  missionary  societies  and  committees 
whose  work  was  that  of  evangelizing  the  heathen. 
Their  income  amounted  to  $12,397,605.  There 
were  5,638  missionaries,  the  majority  being  mar- 
ried, and  2,893  unmarried  female  missionaries.  Of 
native  workers  there  were  4,074  ministers  and  49,- 
718  helpers.  This  great  force  is  everywhere  work- 
ing for  the  same  ends,  by  the  same  means,  under 
the  same  inspiration. 

20 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  UNIVERSALISM  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

Religion  is  the  main  fact  tbrough  whose  in- 
fluence the  spirit  of  man  becomes  released  from 
selfishness  or  individualism.  It  is  true  that  pa- 
triotism has  exerted  a  remarkable  power  of  this 
kind  upon  the  minds  of  the  world's  citizens;  thrill- 
ing heroism  is  found  in  the  annals  of  most  peoples, 
certainly  of  all  those  who  have  contributed  any- 
thing of  value  to  the  history  of  mankind.  And 
indeed  patriotism  and  religion  were  for  long  almost 
synonymous  terms.  But  selfishness  is  not  really 
being  eradicated  from  the  human  heart  until  some 
force  is  at  work  which  so  exalts  men  that  they  be- 
come interested  in  man  as  man.  Patriotism  in  its 
noblest  forms  in  Athens  and  Babylon,  in  Carthage 
and  Rome,  always  resulted  in  contempt  for  the 
rest  of  the  world.  To  be  a  foreigner  was  to  be  a 
barbarian,  fit  only  for  conquest,  tribute  and  slavery. 
Hence  patriotism,  where  it  has  been  unreleased 
from  its  narrowness  by  a  wider  religious  outlook, 
has  been  an  incentive  not  only  to  sublime  self^ 
sacrifice,  but  also  to  the  utmost  cruelty  and  o^^- 
pression.  For  a  moment  a  Latin  poet  might 
catch  a  vision  of  the  worth  of  mankind  as  such, 
and  sweep  a   Roman    audience  into  enthusiasm 

21 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

at  his  vigorous  expression  of  the  rare  concep- 
tion,— "  Nihil  humanum  a  me  alienum  puto."  Or 
again,  a  man  like  Socrates  might  call  him- 
self a  citizen  of  the  world.  But  these  moments  of 
illumination  were  extremely  rare;  not  only  rare, — 
they  were  also  purely  personal.  Neither  philoso- 
phy nor  poetry  could  make  them  the  heritage  of 
the  common  mind  and  a  working  force  in  human 
society.  It  needed  that  which  religion  alone  can 
give  viz.,  the  higher  view  of  God  and  of  every 
man's  relations  to  Him,  to  dignify  man  before  the 
eyes  of  men. 

But  religion  itself  has  had  many  forms  and 
degrees  in  the  history  of  man.  Not  all  of  these 
were  by  any  means  adapted  to  have  a  share  in  the 
work  of  liberalizing  man's  thought  of  man.  When 
the  religious  spirit  was  still  so  impoverished  as  to 
think  of  the  god  of  a  people  or  a  tribe  as  being 
merely  a  local  deity,  religion  became  identified 
with  patriotism  in  the  work  of  developing  tribal 
and  national  selfishness.  It  needed  the  advent  of 
what  have  been  called  the  world-religions,  to  lift 
man  to  the  view^point  from  which  the  true  dignity 
of  man  could  become  a  reality  for  the  practical  life. 
This  was  in  part  attained,  for  example,  in  Buddha, 
and  possibly  in  Confucius.  But  the  fact  is  that 
the  teaching  of  these  men,  being  disconnected  from 
a  definite  doctrine  of  God  and  from  the  conception 
of  a  future  life,  could  only  retain  the  interest  and 
affection  of  the  masses  of  men,  by  becoming  asso- 
ciated with  the  ordinary  faith  of  the  people  in  the 
existence  of  the  gods  and  a  future  sphere  of  re- 

22 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

wards  and  punishments.  Nevertheless  in  their 
systems  there  was  so  real  a  perception  of  the  deep- 
er moral  obligations  between  man  and  man  as  such 
and,  at  least  in  Buddha,  of  the  relations  between 
practical  morality  and  spiritual,  or  religious,  vision 
and  experience,  that  a  partial  foundation  was  laid 
for  a  certain  kind  of  interest  in  humanity.  Then 
it  was  that  men  found  themselves  under  a  sense  of 
obligation  to  deliver  to  others  the  truths  which 
had  been  made  known  to  themselves,  and  religious 
missions  arose.  Not  now  as  a  part  of  patriotism,  not 
now  in  the  interest  of  the  tribe  by  means  of  war, 
did  the  Buddha  and  his  successors  make  known  his 
rules  and  advocate  his  views,  but  because  they  had 
come  to  see,  if  but  dimly,  a  little  of  what  man  is 
and  of  what  man  ought  to  be.  Both  Confucianism 
and  Buddhism  failed  either  to  maintain  the  orig- 
inal, high  convictions  of  their  founders  or  to  re- 
lease themselves  from  the  corruptions  of  idolatry  in 
which  they  so  speedily  became  entangled;  and 
they  lost  their  first  glory  and  elevating  power. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  religion  of  Revelation 
to  attain  true  and  permanent  universality.  It  first 
established  among  men  those  views  of  God  and 
man,  which  first  made  the  world  of  men  loom 
up  as  one  race  with  one  greatest  and  deepest 
need  and  so  created  what  we  called  distinctively 
the  missionary  movement.  And  this  sublime 
power  it  derived  from  the  fact  that  those  views 
were  not  any  longer  the  mere  theories  or  dreams 
or  aspirations  of  the  human  heart  seeking  God,  but 
proceeded  from  the  acts  of  the  divine  heart  seeking 

23 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

man.  The  new  conceptions  of  human  nature  were 
derived  from  those  conditions  of  fellowship  with 
Himself,  which  the  living  God  in  the  course  of  re- 
velation historically  established  and  made  possible 
for  all  men.  In  its  earlier  stage  this  religion  of 
revelation  was  indeed  confined  to  one  people;  in 
connection  with  the  history  of  that  one  people  it 
passed  from  the  simplest  stages,  in  the  beliefs  of 
the  desert  tribes  who  found  themselves  in  cove- 
nant with  Jehovah,  to  the  lofty  axDprehension  of  the 
nature  and  being  of  God  represented,  say,  in  the 
Book  of  Isaiah,  to  the  deep  and  rich  spiritual  experi- 
ences reflected  alike  in  Psalmist  and  Prophet.  Even 
the  development  of  the  idea  of  sacrifice  and  ritual 
in  the  worship  of  Israel  may  instruct  us  concerning 
the  steps  by  which  deepening  awe  of  the  living 
God  and  deepening  dread  of  sinful  relations  to 
Him,  led  the  conscience  of  Israel  to  seek  more  and 
more  adequate  means  of  expression  and  a  more 
inv/ard  reconciliation  with  Him.  It  is  a  common 
but  a  serious  mistake  to  suppose  that  this  religion 
of  the  Old  Testament,  because  concerned  immedi- 
ately with  the  chosen  people,  was  therefore,  narrow 
and  exclusive.  It  is  true  that  it  made  use  of  the 
national  spirit  and  even  strengthened  and  empha- 
sized that  si)irit;  it  is  true  that  at  certain  periods 
prophetism  laid  great  emphasis  upon  the  necessity 
for  maintaining  a  policy  of  separation  from  all 
other  tribes  and  peoples,  with  their  idolatrous 
customs  and  degraded  habits.  But  it  must  be  re- 
membered that  this  was  demanded  just  in  order 
that  Israel  might  be  preserved  for  its  unique  and 

24 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

sublime  function  in  the  world.  And  it  must  be 
also  remembered  that  this  insistence  upon  the  isola- 
tion of  Israel  was  not  felt  even  by  the  prophets  to 
be  inconsistent  with  the  idea  that  ultimately  Israel 
would  come  to  have  the  utmost  signiticance  for  all 
peoples, 

If  we  ask  how  it  was  that  the  religion  of  Israel 
came  to  possess  this  element  of  universalism  and 
to  be  fitted  as  the  precursor  of  the  one  only  relig- 
ion which  is  actually  and  fully  universalistic,  the 
answer  will  direct  our  attention  to  three  aspects  of 
Old  Testament  teaching.  First,  there  is  the  doc- 
trine of  God.  Israel  no  doubt  began  with  a  very 
simple  and  even  crude  idea  of  Jehovah.  Very 
probably  they  spoke  of  Him  just  as  neighboring 
peoples  spoke  of  their  gods  and  for  a  long  time 
their  forms  of  altar  service  may  have  been  quite 
indistinguishable  by  any  fundamental  feature  from 
those  of  kindred  tribes.  But  Israel  came  to  feel 
and  to  see  that  Jehovah  is  the  living  God;  that  the 
universal  God  had  laid  hold  of  their  national  life 
and  history  and  connected  His  Self- revelation 
with  their  fortunes  and  attainments.  The  result 
has  vindicated  their  faith.  He  who  was  known  to 
Israel  as  Jehovah  was  and  is  the  God  of  all  ages 
and  of  all  men.  It  was  only  gradually,  "at  sundry 
times  and  in  divers  manners,"  that  God  spoke  to 
Israel  "  by  the  pro^Dhets."  But  He  verily  did 
speak  and  the  Old  Testament  contains  from  its 
first  page  to  its  last  many  marvelous  statements 
regarding  Him.  The  main  facts  which  we  learn 
are  that  God  is  the  one  and  only  God,  that  He 

25 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

created  the  world,  that  though  the  nations  wor- 
shiped other  gods,  they  are  false  or  unreal  gods, 
that  Jehovah  alone  lives  and  He  is  the  God  of  all, 
that  He  hates  iniquity  and  loves  righteousness, 
that  He  has  chosen  Israel,  His  servant,  but  that 
He  has  done  this  in  order  that  at  last  all  nations 
may  call  themselves  blessed  on  account  of  and 
through  Israel. 

Second,  there  is  the  doctrine  of  man.  Mankind 
is  regarded  even  in  the  Old  Testament  as  being 
one  race.  The  division  between  one  section  of  the 
race  and  another,  between  Asiatic  and  Ethiopian 
for  instance,  is  traced  not  to  a  difference  of  origin, 
but  to  the  action  of  divine  providence.  The  very 
differences  of  language  which  to  the  heathen  world 
seemed  so  mysterious  were  accounted  for,  to  the 
thought  of  Israel,  by  attributing  them  to  the  ju- 
dicial wrath  of  God.  But  all  such  differences  are 
almost  superficial.  Men  are  all  one  before  Jeho- 
vah, who  created  all,  who  is  the  actual  Master  of 
all  and  who  will  yet  vindicate  His  indefeasible 
rights  and  His  universal  authority.^  Although 
man  feels  himself  lowly  and  of  no  account  when 
he  thinks  of  Jehovah,  who  has  set  His  glory  above 
the  heavens,  yet,  when  he  sees  his  own  place  in 
nature  man  feels  that  upon  humanity  itself  there 
rests  a  peculiar  dignity;  he  is  "  crowned  with  glory 
and  honor."  ^  Man  belongs  to  a  double  system,  for 
he  is  capable  not  only  of  beholding  and  appreciat- 
ing the  wisdom  and  might  of  God,  as  displayed  in 


1  Gen.  1-11.     2ps.  8:5. 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

the  outward  universe,  but  of  turning  to  another 
which  is  no  less  real  and  infinitely  more  precious. 
This  is  the  world  of  moral  and  spiritual  law,  the 
realm  where  man  moves  in  personal  relations  with 

Third,  the  Old  Testament  record  of  Revelation 
contains'  that  great  doctrine  of  a  Messiah  and  a 
Messianic  salvation.     The  Israelite  pictures  Abra- 
ham  as  having  received  an  assurance  that  the  deal- 
ings of  God  with  him  would  be  significant  for  all 
nations.     And  indeed  throughout  these  Scriptures 
we  find  many  references  not  only  to  the  attitude 
of  grace  which  God  sustains  towards  the  heathen 
world,'  but  to  the  definite  purpose  which  He  had, 
to  reach  through  Israel  to  all  the  nations.     It  is 
true  indeed,  as  has  been  said,  that  "it  belonged 
essentially  to  the  idea  of  God  prevalent  among  his 
countrymen   that  the  Israelite  should  claim   the 
whole  earth,  as  the  kingdom  of  his  God." '     But 
this  idea  of  the   universal  relation  of   God   to   all 
men  becomes  specially  developed   in  connection 
with  the  hope  of  a  Messianic  age.     This  hope  as- 
sumed various  forms  under  the  divine  guidance, 
these  forms  being  largely  determined  by  the  moral 
and  religious  condition  and  the  political  problems 
of  the  generation  to  which  a  prophet  spoke  or  out 
of  which  a  psalmist  sang.     In  a  very  large  number 
of  cases  the  promise  of  that  final  boon,  that  com- 


iCf.  Pss.  19,  139;  Is.  40:  12-31;  Prov.  8:  22-36,  etc. 
2  Is.  19 :  18-22 ;  Mai.  1 :  11.     (R-  V-) 
SRiehm's  Messianic  Prophecy  (Trans.),  p.  93, 
27 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

pleted  national  blessedness  to  Israel  was  made  to 
sweep  also  the  other  nations  within  its  influence. 
Hence  the  perfect  King  who  is  described  so  glori- 
ously in  the  seventy-second  Psalm,  who  is  to  rule 
over  the  whole  known  world,  is  to  be  served  and 
blessed  by  "  all  nations." 

Even  that  strange  conception  of  the  mountain  of 
the  Lord  to  which  in  Isaiah  so  much  reference  is 
made,  which  is  pictured  as  being  reared  in  the 
Holy  City,  is  to  be  like  a  magnet  drawing  the  na- 
tions unto  it.^  Jehovah  shall  lift  up  a  signal  for 
the  nations  and  the  feast  of  fat  things  which  He 
provides  shall  be  unto  all  peoples.^  "  And  He  shall 
annihilate  in  this  mountain  the  covering  which 
covereth  all  peoples,  and  the  web  which  is  woven 
over  all  nations."  ^  In  the  second  book  of  Isaiah 
these  references  to  the  universal  significance  of 
the  Messiah  and  His  kingdom  become  still  more 
clear  and  more  impressive.  It  is  true  that  even  in 
the  loftiest  of  these  we  find  that  special  note  of 
patriotism  still  ringing  strong  and  clear,  which  ex- 
pected that  in  the  golden  age  to  come  the  world 
would  be  subject  to  Israel  and  Israel  would  be  ex- 
alted to  an  actual  lordship  over  the  nations.*  But 
there  are  occasions  when  the  conception  is  dis- 
tinctly subordinated  to  the  religious  and  spiritual 
hope  of  seeing  mankind  redeemed.  It  was  not  till 
the  New  Covenant  was  actually  established  that 
the  last  vibration  of  the  ancient  tone  of  narrow  pa- 


Us.  2:2,3.     2is.  11:  12;  25:  6.     ^  is.25:  7,  8.  (Prof.  Cheyne's 
Trans.)     *Is.  60:  3,  9,  10-16;  62: 1,  2. 

28 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

triotism  was  stilled  and  the  mere  blessing  of  man 
as  man  contemplated  as  the  supreme  issue  of  all 
history.  At  last,  however,  in  Christianity  itself 
the  true  religion  was  finally  established  and  freed 
from  all  artificial  restrictions  and  national  limita- 
tions. Then  the  true  world^religion  appeared 
among  men  and  began  that  marvelous  redemptive 
and  educative  process  which  to-day  it  is  carrying 
on  more  widely  and  more  powerfully  than  in  any 
earlier  age. 

This  universalism  we  should  expect  to  find  in 
the  Gospels,  of  course;  for,  if  in  the  life  and  work 
of  our  Lord  Himself  it  does  not  appear,  we  would 
find  it  difficult  to  resist  the  argument  that  it  was 
an  addition  to  His  Gospel  made  by  Paul  and  cer- 
tain other  apostles  in  after  days.  But  an  addition 
to  the  Gospel  can  never  hold  our  allegiance,  how- 
ever high  its  authority,  half  so  powerfully  as  that 
w^iich  belongs  to  its  very  nature  and  essence. 
Now  when  we  examine  the  Gospels,  we  are,  per- 
haps, surprised  to  find  that  Jesus  makes  hardly 
any  explicit  references  to  the  world  at  large  or  to 
the  universal  range  of  the  revelation  which  He  has 
brought  into  the  world.  He  does,  indeed,  say 
once,  "  The  field  is  the  world,"  ^  and  twice  He  speaks 
of  His  disciples  in  like  manner,  saying:  "Ye  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth";  ''Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world."  ^  Once,  in  describing  the  kingdom  of  God, 
He  says  explicitly:  "  They  shall  come  from  the  east 
and  the  west  and  from  the  north  and  the  south  and 


Matt.  13 :  38.     2  Matt.  5:13,  14. 
2d 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

shall  sit  down  in  the  kingdom  of  God  " ;  ^  and  He 
speaks  of  the  final  judgment,  "  when  the  Son  of 
man  shall  come  in  His  glory,"  as  an  hour  when 
"  before  Him  shall  be  gathered  all  the  nations."  ^ 
The  fourth  Gospel  seems  to  attribute  to  Him  the 
glorious  universal  affirmation,  "  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish,  but 
have  everlasting  life";  and  again  records  that  He 
said:  "  I,  if  I  be  lifted  up  from  the  earth,  will  draw 
all  men  unto  me."  ^ 

But  after  all,  the  deepest  and  most  impressive 
feature  of  this  universalism  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ 
is  not  to  be  found  in  these  few  incidental  expres- 
sions which  fell  from  His  lips;  it  lies  rather  in  the 
very  Gospel  which  made  them  so  appropriate  and 
natural  that  they  seem  incidental  and  in  themselves 
inadequate  to  account  for  the  world-wide  reach  of 
His  authority  to=day.  While  He  restricted  His 
personal  ministry  and  the  missionary  activity  of 
His  disciples  during  His  lifetime  to  Israel,  we  yet 
feel  that  in  doing  so  He  was  conscious  of  a  delib- 
erate act  of  self = restraint;  that  He  was  aware  of  a 
seeming  contradiction  between  the  substance  of 
His  Gospel  and  the  range  within  which  alone  He 
made  it  known.  There  are  recorded  words  of  His 
which  seem  to  bring  this  element  of  His  conscious- 
ness to  the  surface.*  "  As  He  was  willing  to  be 
the  corn  of  wheat  cast  into  the  ground  to  die.    .  .  . 


iLuke  13:29.      2]y[att.  25:32.      3 joh^  s-ig.  i2:32.      *Matt. 
JO:  5,  6,  23;  15:24-28;   Mark  12:9;  13: 10,  U: 9;  Jphn  12:20. 

§0 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

So,  He  was  willing  to  be  God's  minister  to  the 
Jews,  as  the  best  preparation  for  a  future  ministry 
among  the  Gentiles."  ^  The  real  source  of  the 
universalism  of  the  Gospel  is  in  the  Gospel  itself. 
That  Gospel  is  the  Christ  Himself.  He  is  both 
the  messenger  and  the  message  of  God.  Through 
Him  men  come  to  know  the  Father.  When  a  man 
gives  up  all  to  follow  Him,  that  man  begins  to 
have  eternal  life.  The  Father's  love  reaches  the 
world  through  the  Son.  Man  receives  the  assur- 
ance of  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  of  fellowship  with 
God,  through  Him,  the  Son  of  man,  who  is  ap- 
pointed Son  of  God  and  Savior  of  the  world.  Now 
throughout  the  elucidation  of  this  Gospel  by  means 
of  His  words  concerning  both  God  and  man  as 
well  as  by  His  deeds  of  power  and  of  self=sacrifice, 
the  fact  becomes  more  and  more  evident  that  no 
national  conditions  whatsoever  belong  to  the  new 
experience  which  is  being  created  for  mankind  in 
and  through  the  Son  of  man.  While  He  restricts 
His  outward  presence  to  Israel  and  His  move- 
ments almost  wholly  to  Galilee  and  Judea,  His 
appeal  is  ever  made  to  man,  His  Gospel  is  for 
man.  This  will  appear  most  clearly  from  a  con- 
sideration of  two  chief  features  in  His  teaching 
and  work. 

First,  there  is  His  manifestation  alike  in  word 
and  work  of  the  grace  of  God.  On  His  first 
Messianic  visit  to  Nazareth  He  referred  to  the 
fact  that  even  in  the  Old  Testament  there  were 


^  The  Kingdom  of  God,  by  Prof.  Bruce,  p.  57. 
31 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

signs  of  the  kindness  of  God  towards  those  who 
were  outside  the  covenant ;  ^  and  through  all  His 
ministry  He  strives  to  make  it  plain  that  divine 
grace  is  effectual  unto  all  who  are  lost,  and,  there- 
fore, it  would  seem,  breaks  down  all  national  and 
artificial  barriers.  He  never  connects  the  bestowal 
of  salvation  with  any  conditions  except  with  those 
which  are  possible  to  all  men,  viz.,  faith  and  re- 
pentance. Eitual  has  no  place  in  His  conception 
of  worship.  A  Samaritan  may  worship  the  Father 
as  truly  as  a  Jew.^  A  Samaritan  may  show  an 
obedience  to  God  superior  to  that  of  either  Levite 
or  Priest.^  Wherever  there  is  conscious  need,  the 
grace  of  God  is  active.  Even  publicans,  who  have 
become  worse  than  mere  Gentiles,  who  are  guilty 
indeed  of  a  kind  of  apostasy  in  acting  as  tax-gath- 
erers for  the  Roman  Empire,  may  enter  into  the 
Kingdom  of  God. 

Second.  In  correlation  with  the  grace  of  God 
as  the  only  fountain  of  salvation  there  is  the 
faith  of  man  as  its  only  channel.  The  divine 
grace  is  a  transforming  force,  and  faith  is  its  in- 
strument. Now,  Jesus  Christ  was  the  first  teacher, 
in  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  the  world's 
religions,  who  swept  all  other  considerations 
aside  and  made  faith  the  sole  and  indispensable 
ground  of  fellowship  with  God.  His  dealings  with 
men  in  this  regard  are  more  powerful  evidence 
than  any  set  exposition  of  justification  by  faith 
from  His  lips,  could  have  been.      Righteousness 


Luke  4 :  25-27.     2  John  4 :  21-24.     3  j^^^q  iq ;  33. 
32 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

He  does  demand,  obedience  full  and  free.  But  it 
is  obedience  to  God  apprehended  as  the  Father;  it 
is  obedience  to  the  words  of  Jesus;  it  is  the  service 
of  man,  even  unto  the  bearing  of  the  cross,  "  for 
my  sake."  That  is  to  say,  before  there  can  be 
obedience  or  service,  there  must  be  faith.  Before 
there  can  be  true  worship  of  God  as  Spirit,  He 
must  be  named  as  Father;  and  before  or  in  that 
act  there  must  be  faith.  All  men  are  capable  of 
faith  as  soon  as  they  begin  to  hear  of  Jesus  the 
Christ  and  to  feel  their  need  of  boons  which  God 
can  give  through  Him.  The  publicans  and  har- 
lots, the  Gentile  centurion,  the  Syrophenician 
woman,  the  Samaritans  who  receive  Him,  are  all 
ecxually  welcome  to  His  love  and  to  the  blessings 
which  He  can  bestow;  for  they  show  themselves 
capable  of  faith  towards  Him  as  "  the  Sent "  of  God. 
This  Gosi^el  of  Jesus,  this  announcement  of  a  fel- 
lowship with  God  whose  only  conditions  on  the 
manward  side  are  repentance  and  faith,  this  is  a 
Gospel  for  a  world  of  lost  men  and  women.  At  its 
heart  it  is  universal,  because  it  reveals  God  face  to 
face  with  every  man  and  it  bids  every  man  look  up 
and  see  that  face  of  love. 

All  this  becomes  clearer  still  after  the  Death  and 
Resurrection  have  taken  i3lace.  Then  the  Gospel 
becomes  in  fullest  manner  what  it  had  not  been 
before,  a  working  force  in  human  hearts.  We 
sometimes  speak  as  if  the  words  of  Jesus  interpret 
the  meaning  of  His  death  and  resurrection.  But 
to  the  apostolic  experience  the  opposite  was  the 
case.     It  was  the  crucifixion  and  the  victory  that 

33 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

followed  it,  which  interpreted  His  ministry  and 
His  words.  Then  His  Gospel  became  intelligible, 
then  His  influence  attained  a  new  glory.  Then 
they  were  begotten  again  unto  a  living  hope  and 
knew  that  Jesus  was  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  and 
that  they  had  reconciliation  with  God  through  faith 
in  Him.  ^  Then  also  those  who  stood  around  Him 
ere  He  ascended  heard  Him  say,  "  Go  ye  into  all  the 
world  and  preach  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  crea- 
tion." *  They  only  gradually  came  to  apprehend  the 
universal  meaning  of  all  this.  Unto  Peter  this  rev- 
elation came  when  he  was  sent  to  Cornelius  and  saw 
the  Holy  Spirit  produce  on  heathen  men  the  same 
external  signs  which  had  resulted  from  His  descent 
upon  those  who  were  Jews.  Then  the  Pauline 
ministry  began  and  Paul  came  to  see,  that,  when 
the  Jews  rejected  and  the  Gentiles  accepted  Christ 
and  received  the  Holy  Spirit,  the  Gospel  of  justi- 
fication by  faith  carried  with  it  the  abolition  of  all 
race  and  sex  and  class  distinctions.^  "  God  is  no 
respecter  of  persons,"  both  Peter  and  Paul  ex- 
claimed. But  it  was  Paul  who  grasped  the  signi- 
ficance of  it  most  deeply.  To  the  churches  of 
Galatia,  made  up  both  of  Jews  and  Gentiles,  he 
says:  "There  can  be  neither  Jew  nor  Greek;  there 
can  be  neither  bond  nor  free;  there  can  be  no  male 
and  female;  for  ye  are  all  one  man  in  Christ 
Jesus."  To  the  Corinthians  he  said:  "  Unto  them 
that  are  called,  both  Jews  and  Greeks,  Christ  the 


1 1  Pet.  1:3;  John  20:  31.       2  j^att.  28:  18,  19;  Mark  16: 15. 
3  Gal.  3:26-28. 

3^ 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

power  of  God  and  the  wisdom  of  God."  To  the 
Eomans  he  says  that  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  "  is  the 
power  of  God  unto  salvation  to  every  one  that  be- 
lieveth,  to  the  Jew  first,  and  also  to  the  Gentile."  ^ 
Writing  to  the  Colossians  from  his  Roman  prison, 
the  great  Apostle  explains  that  the  barriers  which 
had  separated  Jew  and  Gentile  have  been  destroyed 
"  through  the  blood  of  His  cross."  That  one  life 
of  Jesus  Christ,  the  Son  of  God  who  gave  Him- 
self in  sacrifice  for  the  sins  of  many,  belonged  to  no 
one  race  but  to  all.  The  virtue  of  His  person  and 
work  cannot  be  limited  by  aught  save  the  unbelief 
of  those  who  reject  Him.  This  unbelief  turns  His 
grace  into  "  a  savor  of  death  unto  death  "  to  them- 
selves. This  great  wonder,  Christ  in  a  man,  "  the 
hope  of  glory,"  is  the  glorious  secret  which  God 
has  kept  so  long  hid  from  ages  and  from  genera- 
tions, for  inscrutable  but  divine  reasons,  which 
now  at  last  is  laid  open  for  all  men.  It  is  to  be 
made  known  among  the  Gentiles,  "  that  we  may 
present  every  man  perfect  in  Christ  Jesus." 

Here  then  is  at  last  a  religion  which  is  for  the 
world.  It  has  the  fullest  consciousness  of  the 
terrors  of  the  Lord;  it  faces  the  awful  majesty  of 
His  holy  name;  it  knows  as  no  other  religion 
what  horror  and  shame  is  wrapped  up  in  that 
word  sin.  It  confronts  the  weakness  of  man  and 
his  unworthiness  as  frankly  and  fully  as  is  con- 
ceivable. And  yet  it  gives  to  man  an  experience 
of  personal  fellowship,  of  living  reconciliation  with 


^Gal.  3:  28;  1  Cor.  1:  24;  Rom.  1:  16,  {R.  V.). 
35 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

God.  It  announces  to  man  the  individual  love  of 
God  for  every  man;  it  assures  him  of  this  love  by 
pointing  to  the  cross  of  Christ  and  the  glory  of 
Easter  morning;  it  calls  on  him  to  love  and  trust 
God  in  Jesus  Christ.  It  lays  down  no  conditions 
regarding  the  kind  of  sins  a  man  has  committed  in 
the  past,  or  the  rank  in  life,  or  the  tribe  or  nation, 
into  which  he  was  born.  Wherever  the  Word  goes, 
it  goes  to  man  as  man,  to  the  weak  as  weak,  to  the 
strong  as  strong,  to  the  lost  as  lost.  It  summons 
him  to  life,  life  with  God,  life  in  God,  life  for  God 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Very  speedily  the  religion  of  Christ  was  spread 
through  the  known  world.  Within  the  first  four 
or  five  centuries  it  had  conquered  the  Roman 
Empire.  From  Constantinople  to  Spain  and  from 
Asia  Minor  to  the  west  side  of  India,  from  Britain 
to  the  Sahara  Desert  and  on  to  Abyssinia,  the 
Church  had  extended  its  influence  and  the  life  of 
fellowship  with  God  had  been  received  by  those 
who  believed  in  Jesus  Christ.  Then  came  the 
hordes  of  unchristianized  peoples,  who  swooped 
down  upon  the  corrupt  lands  of  southern  Europe 
and  northern  Africa.  They  found  a  civilization 
which  had  become  utterly  corrupt  and  which  was 
slowly  paralyzing  the  energies  of  the  Church 
which  it  had  been  compelled  to  recognize. 
People  who  inveigh  against  the  Church  for  its  ap- 
parent inactivity  during  the  next  twelve  or  thir- 
teen centuries  in  a  missionary  direction  should 
master  the  facts  of  the  case.  They  should  consider 
what  it  meant  to  carry  Christianity  to  every  home 

36 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

in  Europe ;  and  not  to  carry  the  mere  message  of  a 
passing  missionary,  but  to  introduce  it  as  a  work- 
ing force,  gradually,  painfully  into  the  family  and 
social  and  national  life  and  consciousness.  They 
should  consider  again  that  Christianity  had  to 
reckon  with  various  enormous  problems  without 
whose  solution  the  Church  would  remain  unfitted 
to  conquer  the  world.  The  great  problems  of 
Theology  had  to  be  faced;  the  discussions  of  the 
theological  centuries,  down  to  the  eighth  century,  and 
the  remarkable  discussions  of  the  Reformation  were 
absolutely  necessary.  There  is  much  to  say  even 
for  the  Scholasticism  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
intellectual  life  cannot  be  kept  out  of  religion. 
There  can  be  no  strong  religious  life  unless  the 
intellect  is  put  into  it  with  as  much  energy  as  the 
heart  and  the  will.  The  Gospel  has  not  descended 
in  set  phrases,  like  pet  dogmas,  out  of  heaven.  It 
is  the  life  of  a  person  with  a  person  through  a 
person;  and  these  personal  relations  must  be  de- 
scribed, if  they  are  to  be  apprehended  and  if  human 
faith  and  life  are  to  be  fed  upon  them.  But  to  de- 
scribe the  mutual  relations  of  these  persons  is  to 
face  the  greatest  problems  which  Philosophy  can 
hope  to  deal  with.  And  inasmuch  as  the  ultimate 
mysteries  had  long  been  matters  of  discussion  even 
in  heathen  Greece  and  Rome  and  these  discussions 
had  given  rise  to  many  schools,  the  Christian 
facts  had  to  be  submitted  to  scrutiny  from  the 
point  of  view  of  the  Philosophies  which  made 
the  intellectual  atmosphere  of  the  Greek  world. 
Hence    theories    and  counter  theories   arose   and 

37 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

all  the  enormous  literature,  the  great  develop- 
ments of  heresy  and  orthodoxy,  the  passion,  the 
fervor,  the  love  and  the  hate,  so  well  known  to  the 
students  of  European  history,  gathered  around 
these  attempted  solutions  or  descriptions  of  ulti- 
mate mysteries  and  the  substance  of  the  GospeL 
Men  saw  the  vast  importance  of  disowning  what- 
soever seemed  to  interfere  with  the  integrity  of 
the  Gospel  or  to  undermine  the  magnificent  cer- 
titude of  the  Christian  consciousness.  No  one 
who  sees  how  necessary  all  this  intellectual  labor 
was,  and  the  various  developments  of  doctrine 
which  it  involved,  no  one  who  appreciates  the 
enormous  difference  between  the  clearness  of  state- 
ment and  the  fulness  of  intellectual  equipment  with 
which  a  modern  missionary  can  go  out  to  the 
heathen  world,  compared  with  Vv^hat  was  possible 
to  the  earliest  missionaries  in  Germany  and  Great 
Britain,  will  fail  to  see  also  that  those  long  centu- 
ries wherein  the  Church  confined  its  energies  to 
the  deepening  of  the  Christian  life  intellectually 
and  socially  in  Europe  were  necessary  to  the  future 
spread  of  the  Gospel  over  the  world.  "  All  this 
was  not  simply  a  waste  of  force  in  wandering  away 
from  the  right  path  and  returning  to  it  again. 
Rather  every  step  of  this  long  process  was  needful 
to  the  result  and  survives  as  a  necessary  element 
in  it.  And  if  humanity  had  not  already  gone 
through  such  experience,  it  would  require  still  to 
go  through  it,  or  something  like  it."  ^ 


^  Professor  Ed.  Caird  on  "Christianity  and    the    Historical 
Christ."     The  New  Review.  March,  1897,  p.  10. 

38 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

At  the  same  time  it  should  be   said  that  during 
those  long  centuries  when  Christianity  practically 
mastered  Europe,  it  was  not  entirely  forgotten  that 
the  world  is   concerned   in   the   Gospel   message. 
The  American  world  was  of  course  unknown  until 
the    16th   century.     Mohammedanism   had   swept 
down  over  northern  Africa,  had  covered  Syria  and 
and  Asia  minor  with  its  relentless  hordes,  and  had 
shut  the  doors   of   approach   to   Africa   and   Asia 
against  the  Church  of  Christ.     And  yet  we  read  of 
various  efforts   made   by  the   Eoman  Church    to 
establish  its  version  of  the  Christian  faith  in  China, 
in  India,  and  in  Africa  long  before  the  times   of 
the  modern  movement  had   dawned.     As   soon   as 
the  Americas  were  discovered  the  work  of  evangel- 
ization began  there.  The  Roman  Church  persisted 
in  its  own  way  until  South  America  became  almost 
entirely  Roman  Catholic.  The  early  Colonists  from 
England,  who  chose  Virginia  and  Maryland,  as  well 
as  those  who  went  to  Pennsylvania  and  New  Eng- 
land, recognized  from  the  beginning  that  as  Chris- 
tians they  owed  a  great  debt  to  the  Indian  aborig- 
ines who  had  become  their  neighbors.      The  char- 
ter of  the  original  Virginia  Company,  which  had  a 
number  of  remarkable  men  on  its  London  Board  of 
Directors,  contains  a   statement  of   the  hope   that 
the  work  of  colonization  "  may  by  the  providence 
of  God,  hereafter  tend  to  the  glory  of   His   divine 
majesty  in  propagating   the  Christian  religion  to 
such  peoples  as  yet  lived  in  darkness  and  miserable 
ignorance  of  the  true   knowledge   and   worship  of 
God  and  may  in  time  bring  the   infidels   of  these 

39 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

parts  to  human  civility  and  to  a  settled  and  just 
goverment."  ^ 

Even  the  East  India  Company,  which  in  the 
days  of  its  enormous  wealth  and  power,  at  the  close 
of  last  and  the  beginning  of  this  century  so  bit- 
terly opposed  the  missionary  movement  began  its 
history  in  quite  another  spirit.  "  The  charter  of 
1698  actually  enacted  that  the  Company  should 
provide  ministers  who  were  to  apply  themselves 
to  learn  the  native  languages  of  the  country  where 
they  shall  reside,  the  better  to  enable  them  to  in- 
struct the  Qentoos  (as  they  called  the  Indians  at 
first)  that  shall  be  servants  or  slaves  to  the  said 
Company  in  the  Protestant  religion."  It  seems 
that  the  Directors  did  on  one  or  two  occasions 
send  Bibles  in  several  languages,  and  Catechisms, 
in  order  to  fulfil  this  provision  in  their  charter. 

The  earlier  Protestant  attempts  at  missions  were 
hampered  by  the  fact  that  the  Church  was  still 
almost  universally  under  state  patronage.  Ofii- 
cialism  has  always  tended  to  starve  evangelization 
of  every  kind.  For  evangelism  lives  on  the  free 
impulses  of  love,  and  ofiicialism  cannot  live  with- 
out the  bonds  of  red=tape,  which  curb  individual  im- 
pulse. It  was  not  until  communities  arose  like 
the  Moravians,  or  the  Churches  of  North  America, 
that  the  conditions  for  permanent  missionary 
effort  were  established.  When  free  Churches  were 
established  in  England  and   when,  through   them, 


^  Vide,  Life  of  Nicholas  Ferrar.  (Longmans)  p.  51.  Vide, 
also  "  The  Missionary  Year  Book,  1889."  (Fleming  H.  Revell 
Co.)  p.  17  ff. 

40 


The  Universalism  of  Christianity 

societies  were  formed  for  the  specific  object  of 
carrying  the  Gospel  to  the  whole  world,  then  in  all 
its  marvelousness  the  modern  missionary  move- 
ment arose.  At  last  the  conditions  had  been 
created  which  made  it  possible  for  the  Church 
intelligently,  deliberately  and  powerfully  to  plan 
for  the  evangelization  of  all  the  nations  of  man- 
kind. Freedom  at  last  from  state  persecution; 
freedom  also  from  ecclesiastical  politics;  depend- 
ence upon,  and  organization  of,  the  direct  interest, 
prayers,  faith,  and  sacrifices  of  the  individual  mem- 
bers of  the  Christian  Church ;  these  were  the  con- 
ditions within  the  Church  which  it  had  taken 
nineteen  centuries  to  attain,  and  which  made  at 
last  the  conquest  of  the  world  an  intelligent 
aim. 

A  brief  summary  of  the  argument  of  this  chap- 
ter would  emphasize  the  following  points.  Relig- 
ion has  attained  true  universality  in  Christianity. 
This  universality  is  seen  alike  in  the  truths  which 
constitute  its  central  teaching  and  in  the  spirit 
with  which  it  fills  its  adherents.  The  truths  are 
such  as  to  awaken  reverence  and  even  love  for 
man  as  man,  to  deepen  our  feeling  of  awe  in  view 
of  the  dignity  of  his  nature  and  the  greatness  of 
his  destiny.  The  spirit  is  seen  in  that  wide 
beneficence  and  self-sacrifice  which  from  the 
beginning  characterized  the  Church  of  Christ, 
which  has  passed  it  is  true  through  many  phases, 
but  has  shone  out  in  this  century  more  radiant 
and  far-reaching  than  at  any  previous  period  of  its 

history. 

41 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Whether  this  universalism  of  Christianity  is 
more  than  a  theory  of  theologians  or  a  dream  of 
enthusiasts  may  be  a  matter  of  question.  It  is 
quite  legitimate  to  ask  if  the  alleged  universalism 
is  being  realized  by  Christianity  becoming  the 
sole  and  universal  religion  of  mankind.  I  hope  in 
the  following  chapters  to  deal  with  that  question, 
the  intention  being  to  obtain  an  idea  of  the  extent 
of  this  movement,  the  methods  in  which  the  spirit 
of  beneficence  just  alluded  to  has  taken  effect,  and 
the  results  for  the  human  race  which  have  followed 
or  are  following  its  operations. 

42 


'     CHAPTER  III. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AS  PIONEER;  THE  UNITY  OF 
THE  RACE. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  century  and  up  to  about 
the  year  1870  the  missionary  was  popularly  classed 
amongst  the  adventurers.  A  halo  of  romance  en- 
circled his  name  wherever  his  reports  were  read. 
When  he  returned  to  the  homeland,  his  public  ad- 
dresses were  made  before  large  and  enthusiastic 
crowds;  his  exhibits  of  curios  from  native  lands 
were  gazed  upon  with  intense  delight;  his  descrip- 
tions of  the  manners  and  customs  obtaining  in  the 
sphere  of  his  travels  and  labors  were  listened  to 
with  bated  breath.  Magazines  did  not  exist  then 
in  the  abundance  which  bewilders  our  minds  to^ 
day,  and  those  which  did  exist  had  not  learned  the 
art  of  catering  to  the  public  taste  for  whatever  is 
novel,  foreign  and  sensational.  The  missionary 
supplied  that  lack  and  fascinated  many  whose  minds 
were  by  no  means  deeply  interested  in  the  central 
meaning  of  his  career. 

And  truly  the  missionary  during  the  first  dec- 
ades of  this  great  movement  found  himself  a  pio- 
neer in  almost  every  land  whither  he  went.  Few 
Europeans  and  in  many  cases  none  had  entered 
before  him  into  the  regions  of  his  missionary  serv- 
ice.     Travelers,  like  the  great  discoverer,  Cook, 

43 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

in  the  South  Seas,  may  have  brought  back  records 
of  islands  discovered  and  brief  descriptions  of  the 
inhabitants;  but  the  missionary  was  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  the  first  man  to  attempt*  to  establish  a 
living  and  intelligent  contact  with  these  peoples. 
Many  of  those  travelers  and  traders  who  had  pre- 
ceded the  missionary  had  failed  to  do  anything  to 
make  their  travels  or  their  trade  contribute  to  the 
real  opening  up  of  the  countries  which  they  visited. 
When  Adoniram  Judson  went  to  Burmah,  and 
Jones  to  Madagascar,  and  Williams  to  the  South 
Seas,  and  Marsden  to  New  Zealand,  and  Chalmers 
to  New  Guinea,  and  Mackay  to  Uganda,  they 
found  themselves,  indeed,  in  lands  and  amongst 
peoples  that  had  been  in  a  sense  already  discov- 
ered; and  yet  they  were  in  very  truth  pioneers. 
To  them  it  was  given  to  see  much  and  to  describe 
much  which  their  transient  predecessors  had  failed 
to  notice  or  to  make  known.  The  reports  of  men 
like  these  and  of  several  hundreds  like  them  have 
proved  to  be  of  the  utmost  value  in  accumulating 
geographical  information  of  every  kind.  "  Geog- 
raphy," it  has  been  said,  "  is  the  most  valuable  of 
the  allies  of  foreign  missions,  which  have  done  in 
return,  so  much  for  the  development  and  elevation 
of  this  most  interesting  and  comprehensive  of  all 
the  sciences."  ^ 

The  region  of  the  world  where  missionaries  have 
done  most  as  pioneers  or  where  their  achievements 
have  been  most  striking  and  interesting,  has  un- 

^  Dr.  George  Smith,  in  "  Missions  at  Home  and  Abroad," 
p.  140. 

44 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

doubtedly  been  the  "  dark  continent "  of  Africa. 
It  was  in  1837  that  Ludwig  Krapf,  a  young  student 
from  Basle,  was  sent  out  to  Africa  by  the  Church 
Missionary  Society.  His  efPorts  to  settle  in  Abys- 
sinia were  in  vain,  and  in  1844  he  landed  at  Mom- 
basa, one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  north  of 
Zanzibar.  He  was  joined  by  two  men  of  like 
spirit,  Rebmann  and  Ehrhardt.  In  subsequent 
years  he  made  repeated  journeys  inland,  penetra- 
ting far  into  the  heart  of  the  continent,  encounter- 
ing many  dangers,  both  from  wild  beasts  and 
savage  peoples.  In  1856  the  companions  above 
named  displayed  before  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  in  London  a  map  of  the  interior  of  Africa. 
It  contained  many  inaccuracies,  no  doubt,  but  its 
real  discoveries  were  so  remarkable  that  the  scien- 
tific world  was  thoroughly  stirred.  From  the  im- 
pulse given  by  these  men,  "  Burton  went  forth— 
Speke  and  Grant  went  forth."  In  the  meantime 
there  was  living,  working  and  traveling  in  South 
Africa  a  man  whose  name  was  destined  to  a  fame 
greater  than  any  of  these  explorers  attained.  David 
Livingstone  had  already  begun  his  series  of  great 
discoveries.  In  1849  he  had  reached  Lake  Ngami; 
and  had  become  gradually  convinced  that  north  of 
the  regions  which  he  had  explored  the  "  country 
beyond  was  not  the  large  sandy  plateau  of  the  phi- 
losophers." His  mind  was  made  up  to  press  on 
into  those  unexplored  territories  in  order  to  open 
them  up  to  missionary  and  other  enterprises.  Of 
his  subsequent  achievements,  this  is  no  place  to 
speak.     His  toils,  his  sufferings,  his  victories,  are 

45 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

part  of  the  heritage  of  every  intelligent  man  and 
and  woman.^ 

The  spirit  of  this  man  is  abundantly  revealed  in 
the  letters  and  the  jottings  in  his  journal  towards 
the  end  of  his  life.  With  what  courage  he  pressed 
on  through  all  manner  of  difficulties,  with  what 
marvelous  success  he  encountered  and  mollified 
the  fierce  opposition  of  the  wildest  tribes,  remain- 
ing unarmed  and  never  threatening  to  employ 
force,  need  not  here  be  enlarged  upon.  When 
the  first  rumors  that  Livingstone  was  dead  reached 
the  homeland,  the  minds  of  many  millions  of  peo- 
ple were  aroused  to  the  most  intense  interest  in 
his  career  and  achievements.  The  interest  was 
deepened  almost  to  a  painful  degree  by  the  uncer- 
tainty which  for  long  weeks  filled  many  minds  re- 
garding the  truth  of  these  sad  rumors.  When  at 
last  in  1874  the  news  was  flashed  over  the  land, 
that  Livingstone's  body  had  been  carried  hun- 
dreds of  miles  to  the  coast  by  two  of  his  native 
servants  and  that  it  was  about  to  be  brought  to 
England  in  a  ship  of  the  Royal  Navy,  the  excite- 
ment was  universal.  For  a  career  like  his  it 
seemed  to  be  the  only  fitting  earthly  close,  that  his 
body  should  find  its  last  resting  place  among  the 
illustrious  dead  in  Westminster  Abbey.  The  close 
of  Livingstone's  career  was  the  opening  of  Africa 
to  commerce  and  missions.  Three  or  four  of  the 
leading  missionary  societies  used  the  opportunity 
presented  by  the  public   enthusiasm   to   establish 


*  Vide,  "The  Personal  Life  of  David  Livingstone,"  by  Pro- 
fessor Blaikie. 

16 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

new  missions  in  various  parts  of  the  vast  regions 
now  open  to  European  influence.  Commercial 
companies  and  individual  traders  of  all  kinds 
eagerly  penetrated  into  these  fields  which  promised 
such  magnificent  results  to  their  enterprise.^ 

I  wish  to  return  to  the  thought  that  the  chief 
work  of  missionaries,  as  pioneers,  is  not  to  be 
measured  by  the  mere  number  of  geographical  and 
other  discoveries  which  they  have  made.  Their 
influence  upon  the  world  has  mainly  arisen  from 
the  fact  that  in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  world  they 
have  been  the  first  Europeans  who  have  really  set- 
tled down  and  made  their  homes  amongst  heathen 
and  oftentimes  amongst  savage  peoples.  Their 
stations  have  thus  naturally  become  well  known  as 
stages  or  j)laces  of  call  along  the  great  trade  routes, 
whether  by  land  or  by  sea.  The  trader  comes  to 
think  of  the  mission  station  as  a  place  where  life  is 
more  secure  and  where  gradually  business  becomes 
more  abundant.^  If  it  is  true,  on  the  one  hand, 
that  the  instructions  of  the  missionary  gradually 
enlighten  the  people  and  make  it  less  easy  for  an 
unscrupulous  trader  to  cheat  them  right  and  left, 
it  is  true  also,  on  the  other  hand,  that  the  same  in- 
structions increase  the  appetite  of  the  natives  for 
the  products  of  civilization.  Missionary  work,  as 
we  shall  see  in  a  later  chapter,  has  always  been 
found  to  stimulate  in  any  tribe  or  people  the  pro- 


^L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I,  pp.275,  ff. 

2  Cf.  The  saving  of  Dr.  Junker's  life   by   Alex.   Mackay   in 
Mackay  of  Uganda,"  pp.  315,  320. 


47 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

cess  of  civilization.  The  mere  pioneer  trader  has 
never  succeeded  in  doing  so.  His  influence  has 
not  developed  the  taste  of  the  natives,  has  not 
made  the  places  which  he  visits  more  inviting  for 
the  occupancy  of  other  Europeans.  In  West  Af- 
rica, for  example,  the  extensive  operations  of  trad- 
ers, in  connection  with  the  rubber  trade,  have  the 
sole  effect  even  at  this  day,  of  oppressing  and  de- 
grading the  natives.  Deliberate  cruelty  and  per- 
sistent injustice  may  gradually  depopulate  the 
country,  but  cannot  be  said  to  open  it  up  to  any 
further  connections  with  the  civilized  world  than 
are  involved  in  the  mere  processes  of  the  one  or 
two  forms  of  trade  created  by  the  natural  products 
of  the  country.  The  observations  of  missionaries 
and  others  in  the  South  Seas,  combine  to  corrobo- 
rate this  view  that  the  pioneer  trader  is  unable 
to  open  up  the  lands  which  he  visits  to  a  living 
and  healthful  connection  with  the  world  at  large. 
The  pioneer  missionary,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
he  remains  in  such  a  West  African  village,  which 
is  suffering  from  the  incursions  of  the  trader,  sets 
forces  agoing  which  more  or  less  speedily  change 
the  aspect  of  affairs.  He  builds  his  house,  opens 
his  school,  plans  and  cultivates  his  garden,  trains 
native  servants  to  help  him,  and  advises  the  com- 
munity at  large  regarding  their  homes,  clothing, 
tools  and  gardens.  Thus  a  demand  is  created  for  a 
larger  trade  in  a  higher  class  of  articles  than  had 
hitherto  been  supplied.  Shoddy  stuffs,  bead  orna- 
ments and  worthless  trinkets  cease  to  attract  pur- 
chasers.    The  village  has  fifty  points  of  living  in- 

48 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

terest  in  the  world  beyond  its  bounds  for  every  one 
which  it  possessed  before  the  missionary  arrived. 
This  aspect  of  the  missionary's  work  deserves  em- 
phasis, because  it  is  often  supposed  that  the  car- 
rying of  religion  and  trade  to  heathen  lands  are 
industries  which  have  nothing  in  common.  Some 
traders  have  even  sought  to  describe  missionary 
activity  as  an  enemy  of  trade.  As  a  matter  of  fact 
the  worst  kind  of  traders  precede  the  mission- 
ary, the  best  kind  almost  always  come  after  him. 

It  is  worthy  of  record  that  it  has  in  several  in- 
stances been  reserved  for  the  Medical  missionary 
to  open  the  way  into  countries  which  had  strenu- 
ously resisted  the  approaches  of  civilized  commu- 
nities. Into  Siam,  Corea,  and  Cashmere,  for  ex- 
ample, scarce  a  ray  of  light  from  the  Western 
World  could  find  its  way  until  the  medical  mis- 
sionary daringly  entered  and  touched  the  needs  of 
men  with  his  merciful  hands.  His  power  to  help 
human  beings  in  the  hour  of  their  greatest  distress 
and  his  persistent  refusal  to  make  any  personal 
gain  out  of  their  gratitude,  has  over  and  over  again 
broken  down  national  prejudices  and  led  to  the 
emancipation  of  a  people  from  the  thraldom  of  its 
isolation.  The  magnificent  courage  of  young  Elm- 
slie  and  his  young  wife  in  the  conquest  of  Cash- 
mere has  written  one  of  the  most  pathetic  and 
brilliant  pages  of  heroism  and  self^^denial. 

There  is  another  direction  in  which  missiona- 
ries have  proved  themselves  of  great  service  to 
mankind,  namely,  in  the  accumulation  of  scientific 
knowledge.  Concerning  this  it  is  not  within  my 
49 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

purpose  or  plan  to  say  much.  But  it  may  be  of  use 
to  state  a  few  of  the  leading  facts.  The  missionary 
has  proved  himself  a  man  of  wider  interests  than 
some  sections  of  society  have  attributed  to  him. 
From  all  parts  of  the  world  his  contributions  to 
science  are  numerous  and  valuable,  and  in  some 
cases  have  proved  themselves  of  first=class  impor- 
tance. If  the  'Transactions '  of  Botanical,  Zoolog- 
ical, Geological,  Archaeological,  Ethnological, 
Philological  and  Geographical  Societies  in  Ger- 
many, Britain  and  America  were  ransacked,  they 
would  be  found  to  contain  well-nigh  innumerable 
contributions,  in  the  form  of  memoranda,  reports 
and  discussions,  which  have  been  sent  by  mission- 
aries from  all  over  the  world.  The  late  Professor 
Agassiz  said:  "  Few  are  aware  how  much  we  owe 
them  (the  missionaries),  both  for  their  intelligent 
observation  of  facts  and  for  their  collection  of  spec- 
imens. We  must  look  to  them  not  a  little  for  aid 
in  our  efforts  to  advance  future  science."  ^  A  work 
known  as  "  The  Ely  Volume"  has  been  published 
in  America,  which  confines  itself  almost  entirely  to 
the  contributions  made  to  science  by  the  represent- 
atives of  that  great  society.  The  American  Board 
of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions.  Although 
thus  restricted  in  its  range,  it  amounts  to  a  volume 
of  over  five  hundred  pages  of  small  print,  describ- 
ing original  discussions  and  observations  in  almost 
every  department  of  science. 
Among  individual  instances  of  service  rendered 


1  Quotea  in  the  "  Ely  Volume,"  p.  122, 
5Q 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

to  Science  two  or  three  of  the  more  remarkable  ex- 
amples may  be  given.  Carey,  the  great  missionary 
to  India,  who  in  the  one  task  of  mastering  oriental 
languages  and  translating  the  Scriptures  may  be 
said  to  have  done  the  work  of  ten  men,  carried  on 
at  the  same  time  most  valuable  investigations  in  a 
quite  different  direction.  He  was  a  keen  observer  of 
nature  and  his  love  of  botany  led  him  to  establish 
a  large  garden  for  the  study  of  the  Indian  flora. 
His  contributions  to  Science  concerning  the  natu- 
ral history  and  botany  of  India  were  of  such  im- 
portance that  he  was  elected  to  the  Asiatic  Society. 
But  greater  than  that  was  the  fact  that  he  proposed 
and  founded  "  The  Agricultural  and  Horticultural 
Society  of  India."  At  its  first  meeting  only  five 
were  present.  But  so  diligent  and  wise  was  he  that 
it  grew  rapidly  and  has  exercised  great  influence 
in  Science  and  on  the  development  of  India.^  In 
the  South  Seas  there  have  lived  and  worked  two 
brothers.  Rev.  J.  T.  Gulick  and  the  Rev.  L.  Halsey 
Gulick,  each  of  whom  has  done  scientific  work  of 
unusual  value.  The  former  is  the  man  whose  name 
has  been  made  so  famous  in  recent  days  by  its  as- 
sociation with  the  development  of  thought  through 
which  the  late  George  J.  Romanes  passed.  He 
gave  his  attention  to  certain  conditions  of  life  ob- 
taining in  the  Sandwich  Islands,  which  seemed  to 
him  to  illustrate  the  laws  of  the  modification  of 
species.       The    results    of    his    observation    and 


^Vide,  Dr.  George  Smith's  splendid  chapfer   in  his  Life  of 
Carey  on  "What  Carey  did  for  Science." 
51 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

thought  were  sent  to  the  Linnaean  Society  in 
London.  Concerning  these  communications,  Mr. 
Romanes  published  the  following  opinion  in  the 
well-known  weekly  paper  called  Nature  \-  "I  can- 
not allow  the  present  communication  to  appear  in 
these  columns  without  again  recording  my  convic- 
tion that  the  writer  is  the  most  profound  of  living 
thinkers  upon  Darwinian  topics,  and  that  the  gen- 
eralizations which  have  been  reached  by  his  twenty 
years  of  thought  are  of  more  importance  to  the 
theory  of  evolution  than  any  that  have  been  pub- 
lished during  the  post=Darwinian  period."  We  are 
told  that  the  Rev.  L.  Halsey  Gulick  while  in 
Micronesia  made  observations  of  a  geographical  and 
Meteorological  nature  which  are  used  to  this  day  as 
a  basis  for  drawing  up  charts   of  navigation.^ 

I  have  already  adverted  to  the  almost  incalculable 
debt  which  geographical  science  owes  to  the 
travels  and  observations  of  missionaries  in  every 
part  of  the  world.  Carl  Ritter,  the  most  pains- 
taking and  influential  of  modern  geographers, 
freely  recognized  the  missionaries  as  indispens- 
able coadjutors  of  his  work.  Of  the  Missionary 
Herald  he  says:  "   It  is  the  repository  to  which 


1  Vide  "  Nature,"  April  10,  1890.  The  facts  concerning  Mr. 
Gulick's  correspondence  with  Mr.  Romanes  are  given  in  Bibli- 
otheca  Sacra,  Vol.  53,  pp.  68,  69,  and  165-167.  In  the  same  vol- 
ume, Mr.  Gulick's  'Statement,'  made  on  the  request  of  Mr. 
Romanes,  entitled  "  Christianity  and  the  Evolution  of  Ration- 
al life,"  is  printed  in  full,  pp.  70-74.  Cf.  Romanes'  "Thoughts 
on  Religion,"  passim. 

2  Life,  by  Frances  Gulick  Jewett,  pp.  161  ff. 

52 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

the  reader  must  look  to  find  the  most  valuable 
documents  that  have  ever  been  sent  over  by  any 
society,  and  where  a  rich  store  of  scientific, 
historical,  and  antiquarian  details  may  be  seen."  * 
The  same  remark  will  apply  in  a  great  measure  to 
the  organs  of  all  the  leading  missionary  societies. 
It  is  of  course  in  the  region  of  Anthropological 
science  that  the  largest  mass  of  materials  has  been 
contributed  by  the  missionaries.  They,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  have  become  more  intimately  acquainted 
with  the  customs,  institutions,  not  to  speak  of  lan- 
guages and  religions  of  heathen  peoples,  than  any 
other  class  of  men.  Allusion  has  been  made  to 
the  many  contributions  sent  by  missionaries  to  the 
"Transactions"  of  learned  Societies  and  to  the 
pages  of  missionary  magazines.  The  scientific  value 
of  these  is  of  course  far  surpassed  by  the  volumes 
of  all  kinds,  large  and  small,  learned  and  popular, 
which  missionaries  have  written  during  this  century. 
They  will  be  found  to  deal  in  varying  degrees  of  ful- 
ness and  detail  with  the  history,  religion,  language, 
physical  conditions,  government  and  social  life  of 
most  of  the  peoples  of  heathendom.  No  one  who 
has  not  glanced  over  a  large  missionary  library 
and  discovered  hoiu  incomplete  it  is,  can  have  any 
conception  of  the  extent  of  this  literature.  And 
no  one  who  has  not  read  pretty  widely  in  it  can 
have  any  idea  of  its  value  in  relation  to  the  sub- 
jects above  named. 


*  Professor   G.   Frederick   Wright,  D.  D.,   in  "  Missions   at 
Home  and  Abroad."     p.  351. 

53 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

The  missionary  may  then  be  looked  upon,  in  the 
light  of  what  has  been  said  of  his  influence  as  a 
traveler  and  a  recorder  of  facts,  as  a  considerable 
force  in  the  development  of  the  race  during  this 
century.  But  there  is  one  point  regarding  his 
function  in  this  development  which  is  of  peculiar 
significance.  If  the  facts  stated  above  and  those 
which  I  hope  to  establish  in  the  following  chap- 
ters are  facts,  and  are  correctly  interpreted,  it  fol- 
lows that  the  missionary  movement  has  done  more 
than  anything  else  to  hasten  the  reunion  of  the 
race.  The  unity  of  mankind  may  or  may  not  have 
been  a  realized  fact  in  the  beginning  of  history; 
but  since  the  time  when  seas  and  mountains, 
deserts  and  rivers,  first  broke  the  race  up  into  iso- 
lated and  independent  sections,  that  unity  has  been 
more  of  an  ideal  or  a  dream,  than  a  living  and  con- 
crete truth.  The  nations  have  been  divided  from 
one  another  for  many  ages ;  there  has  been  little  or  no 
interchange  of  intellectual,  religious,  or  social  in- 
fluence. Even  the  extension  of  the  Roman  Em- 
pire over  many  races  did  not  and  could  not  serve 
to  make  them  one  in  more  than  a  merely  formal 
sense.  In  all  that  made  life  what  it  was  to  each  of 
them,  they  were  separated  from  one  another.  To= 
day  we  are  in  presence  of  a  most  remarkable  phe- 
nomenon. The  basis  is  being  laid  deep  in  the 
consciousness  of  every  people  on  earth  which 
makes  it  possible  for  all  peoples  to  realize  their 
common  brotherhood,  and  to  feel  the  fascination  of 
a  reunited  humanity.  The  force  which  more  than 
any  other  is  working  towards  this  consummation 

54 


The  Missionary  as  Pioneer 

is  the  Christian  religion.  Deep  down  below  those 
levels  of  thought  and  emotion  which  are  touched 
by  commerce,  war,  politics,  industry  or  secular 
education  it  is  doing  this  work.  It  is  the  relig- 
ious impulse  which  alone  accounts  for  the  career  of 
the  missionary.  He  becomes  the  pioneer  who  makes 
his  home  far  in  advance  of  all  other  Europeans 
within  the  confines  of  heathendom  and  savagery, 
because  he  has  heard  what  he  names  "  the  call  of 
God,"  and  has  felt  the  mysterious  impulse  which 
he  and  all  who  think  with  him  attribute  to  the 
Spirit  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  only  the  communica- 
tion of  this  religious  experience  to  heathen  men 
and  women  which  is  creating  the  conditions  for 
that  unity  of  sentiment  and  life  towards  which  the 
world  is  moving.  For  when  the  missionary  has 
succeeded  in  winning  converts,  the  latter  receive 
a  new  consciousness  regarding  their  relations  to 
the  world  at  large.  As  we  shall  see  in  greater  de- 
tail, and  be  compelled  to  emphasize  again,  it  is  out 
of  this  community  of  religious  experience  that  the 
other  affiliations  of  race  with  race  and  tribe  with 
tribe  are  developing  before  the  eyes  of  us  all.  If 
the  work  were  not  proceeding  so  quietly  and 
steadily,  if  its  most  important  operations  were  not 
being  carried  on  in  the  deeper  regions  of  religious 
attainment  and  moral  development,  and  if  its 
sphere  were  not  so  vast,  comprehending  all  nations 
and  languages,  more  of  us  would  be  astounded  by 
the  thing  which  is  happening  in  our  generation. 
Humanity  is  becoming  one  organism.  But  the 
life  which  is  permeating  the  separate  members, 

55 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

many  of  which  were  almost  fatally  atrophied,  is 
the  life  of  the  Christian  religion.  And  this  life  is 
at  present  working  through  the  class  of  men  whom 
we  call  missionaries.  Throughout  the  world  in 
their  myriads  of  mission  stations,  on  lonely  is- 
lands and  amongst  teeming  oriental  cities,  they  are 
all  ceaselessly  busied  about  their  magnificent  task. 
The  army  seems  scattered,  but  it  is  thoroughly  or- 
ganized, and  it  is  the  most  effective  instrument 
ever  dreamed  of  by  men  for  making  one  humanity 
out  of  the  scattered  and  isolated  tribes  of  earth. 
The  missionaries  are  all  drawing  the  hearts  of 
mankind  to  one  center  of  supreme  interest  and  in- 
finite power.  Ask  them  all  in  their  scattered  sta- 
tions, lonely  and  yet  not  alone,  what  motive  has 
brought  them  there,  and  why  there  is  this  extra- 
ordinary identity  of  aim  and  of  influence  pervad- 
ing all.  their  separate  spheres  of  labor,  and  they 
unanimously  give  one  name  as  the  explanation  of 
these  facts.     It  is  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

56 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AS  TRANSLATOR;  THE 
BIBLE  AND  THE  WORLD. 

One  of  the  most  remarkable  and  impressive 
phases  of  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church  is 
undoubtedly  the  circulation  of  the  Bible  through- 
out  the  world,  as  that  has  been  achieved  during 
this  century.  I  propose  in  this  chapter  to  de- 
scribe briefly  the  extent,  the  cost,  and  the  effects 
of  that  work. 

At  the  end  of  last  century  the  Scriptures  had 
been  translated  into  less  than  fifty  languages. 
That  number  was  of  course,  in  large  measure,  con- 
fined to  the  languages  of  Europe.  As  soon  as  the 
movement  outwards  to  the  great  world  of  heathen- 
dom began,  attention  was  directed  to  the  necessity 
for  giving  the  Bible  to  those  who  were  to  be  evan- 
gelized, in  their  own  languages.  It  is  well  known 
how  early  the  founders  of  missions  in  the  East  di- 
rected and  how  completely  some  of  them  concen- 
trated their  attention  upon  this  task.  William 
Carey  and  Henry  Martyn  in  India,  deeply  as  they 
longed  and  hard  as  they  labored  for  the  conversion 
of  individuals  to  the  Christian  faith,  yet  allowed 
nothing  to  interfere  with  their  pursuit  of  the  ideal 
which  glowed  before  their  minds,  that,  namely,  of 
giving  to  the  peoples  of  India  the  Word  of  God  in 
57 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

their  own  tongues.  Indeed,  of  Martyn  it  is  said 
that,  "  His  devotion  to  the  study  of  the  languages 
which  interpret  and  apply  to  the  races  of  India, 
Asia  and  Persia,  the  books  of  the  Christian  reve- 
lation, was  so  absorbing  as  to  shorten  his  career."  ^ 
It  was  not  long  before  the  friends  of  the  Gospel 
in  the  homelands  found  that  this  work  must  be 
undertaken  by  special  agencies  and  that  the  ordi- 
nary missionary  societies  could  not  grapple  with 
the  task  of  superintending  the  printing  and  pub- 
lishing of  the  Scriptures.  Hence  arose  the  Bible 
Societies.  These  institutions  which  now  number 
nearly  one  hundred  all  over  Christendom  comprise 
many  whose  work  is  almost  purely  local  and  is 
confined  to  the  work  of  dissemination  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  larger  and  graver  task  has  de- 
volved almost  exclusively  upon  five  or  six  societies. 
Of  these  the  best  known  are  the  British  and  For- 
eign Bible  Society,  The  American  Bible  Society, 
and  The  National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland.  An 
idea  of  the  amount  of  energy  and  devotion  which 
is  annually  devoted  to  this  work  may  be  gathered 
from  a  glance  at  the  figures  which  these  Societies 
published  for  the  one  year,  1895.  In  that  year  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  had  an  income 
of  $1,069,810,  and  circulated  3,970,439  copies  of 
Bibles,  New  Testaments  and  portions  of  the  Bi- 
ble. The  American  Bible  Society  had  an  income 
of  $437,220,  and  circulated  1,750,283  copies.  The 
National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland  had  an  income 


^  Life  of  Henry  Martyn.     By  Dr.  Geo.  Smith,  p.  419. 
58 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

of  $144,880  and  circulated  814,408  copies.  The 
three  Societies  together  had  an  income  of  $1,651,- 
900  and  circulated  6,535,130  copies.  It  has  been 
computed  that  the  thirty  largest  Bible  Societies 
had  up  to  the  year  1893  put  into  circulation  no 
less  than  250,000,000  copies  of  either  the  whole 
Bible  or  a  portion  of  it.  This  vast  amount  of 
work  is  being  carried  on  day  by  day  by  means  of 
the  ordinary  missionary  agencies  and  by  means  al- 
so, in  many  lands,  of  colporteurs  appointed  and 
supported  by  the  respective  Bible  Societies  for  the 
express  work  of  distributing  or  selling  the  Scrip- 
tures and  explaining  their  teaching  whenever  they 
can  find  opportunity.  The  latter  are  among  the 
most  efficient  agencies  at  present  working  for  the 
redemption  of  the  world.  They  must  be  men  of 
great  devotion,  of  constant  and  ready  wit,  able  to 
suit  themselves  to  each  emergency  and  to  have  an 
answer  at  once  wise  and  attractive  for  all  the  abun- 
dant words  of  opposition  or  ridicule  which  are 
cast  upon  the  book  which  they  sell  and  the  work 
of  selling  it  which  they  have  undertaken.  High 
among  those  who  have  done  great  things  for  the 
Kingdom  of  God  will  stand  the  name  of  many  a 
colporteur  whose  fame  has  not  gone  far  in  the 
world. 

Concerning  the  Bible  Societies  two  facts  of  de- 
lightful significance  ought  to  be  recorded.  In  the 
first  place  they  have  cooperated  with  great  mag- 
nanimity and  unfailing  courtesy  with  all  kinds  of 
missionary  societies.  Their  connections  with 
some  of  the  societies  have  been  peculiarly  inti- 
69 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

mate  and  constant.  Negotiations  regarding  the 
making  and  printing  of  translations,  regarding  the 
payment  of  missionaries  as  translators,  revisers, 
proof -readers,  etc.,  and  regarding  the  supply  of  Bi- 
bles and  portions  to  the  various  fields  where  they 
were  needed  and  payment  for  the  same,  have  often 
involved  delicate  personal  and  other  matters.  But 
the  whole  spirit  of  their  ideal  has  entered  into  the 
hearts  and  minds  of  these  directors  and  informed 
their  dealings  with  one  another.  In  the  second 
place  the  Bible  Societies  have  offered  to  the  world 
the  spectacle  of  at  least  one  platform  on  which  all 
who  are  of  the  evangelical  faith  can  stand  togeth- 
er. The  British  and  Foreign,  and  the  American 
Bible  Societies  both  describe  the  aim  of  their  ex- 
istence in  identical  terms:  "its  sole  object  shall  be 
to  encourage  a  wide  circulation  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures without  note  or  comment."  They  are  almost 
the  only  institutions  of  an  interdenominational 
character  which  have  survived  the  tendency  to 
form  denominational  societies. 

It  requires  a  considerable  effort  of  the  imagina- 
tion to  realize  the  extent  of  the  work,  and  still 
more  the  extent  of  its  influence,  as  the  task  of  Bi- 
ble distribution  proceeds  throughout  the  world. 
Let  me  state  a  few  facts  bearing  upon  various  as- 
pects of  the  work  in  various  parts  of  the  world  to 
aid  our  imagination.  The  Bible,  which,  as  I  have 
said,  existed  in  less  than  fifty  translations  at  the 
end  of  last  century,  has  now  been  translated  and 
is  now  published,  in  whole  or  part,  in  nearly  four 
hundred  languages   and   dialects.      So   persistent 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

and  serious  has  been  the  toil  of  missionaries  over 
this  one  great  task  that  in  a  recent  period  of  ten 
years  (1882-1892),  no  less  than  fifty  new  transla- 
tions were  made.  There  are  many  native  lan- 
guages in  Africa  into  which  no  translation  has 
yet  been  possible.  There  are  probably  districts 
in  India  and  China  in  a  similar  position.  There 
are  probably  some  more  important  languages  in 
Central  Asia  to  which  this  supreme  evidence  of 
admission  to  a  central  place  in  the  world's  history 
has  not  yet  come.  But  nine4enths  of  the  peoples 
of  the  world  speak  the  languages  into  which 
translations  have  been  made,  while  only  one4enth 
speak  the  tongues  as  yet  unconquered  for  this  end. 
It  is  true,  therefore,  to  say,  that  now  at  last  no 
considerable  section  of  the  world's  inhabitants 
speaking  one  language  is  without  the  Scriptures. 
A  few  facts  illustrative  of  details  may  help  us  to 
realize  the  character  and  extent  of  the  work.  The 
National  Bible  Society  of  Scotland  has  divided 
China  into  five  great  agencies.  In  them  it  em- 
ploys eight  European  agents,  and  one  hundred  and 
fifty  native  colporteurs.  The  work  of  these  men 
is  to  go  from  place  to  place  striving  to  get  the  peo- 
ple to  buy  the  Scriptures.  They  speak  to  them, 
explain  the  nature  of  the  strange  wares  which 
they  offer,  answer  difficult  questions,  read  passages 
in  order  to  whet  the  appetite  and  excite  the  curi- 
osity. But  they  neither  preach  nor  teach  in  any 
stated  place.  Their  life  work  is  to  scatter  the 
Scriptures.  This  army  representing  only  one  So- 
ciety did  in  China  in  1896  dispose  of  379  Bibles, 

61 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

5,246  Testaments  and  208,165  portions,  making  a 
total  of  213,790  copies  of  Scripture  sold.  Turn  to 
another  religion.  In  the  Turkish  empire  two 
books  compete  for  supremacy  over  the  religious 
life  of  its  inhabitants,  viz:  the  Koran  and  the  Bi- 
ble. Now,  the  Mohammedan  religion  forbids  that 
its  sacred  books  be  translated  out  of  the  holy  Ara- 
bic language  into  infidel  tongues;  and  any  Turk- 
ish subject  who  is  found  with  a  copy  of  such  trans- 
lation would  have  to  forfeit  it  that  it  be  committed 
to  the  flames.  But  the  Christian  Bible  is  now 
translated  into  eleven  of  the  languages  spoken 
within  the  boundaries  of  that  empire,  and  no  less 
than  fifty  or  sixty  thousand  copies  are  sold  annu- 

ally. 

The  story  of  the  labor  involved  in  the  transla- 
tion of  the  Bible  into  more  than  three  hundred 
languages,  and  its  revision  in  many  cases  over  and 
over  again,  can  probably  never  be  fully  told.  It 
lies  buried  in  the  records  of  the  various  mission- 
ary societies.  Nay,  much  of  it  is  not  even  there. 
For  missionaries,  as  a  class,  do  not  complain  of 
their  toil  nor  recount  its  details.  Their  periodical 
reports  seldom  reflect  with  any  adequacy  the  wear- 
iness, the  monotony,  or,  at  times,  the  drudgery  of 
their  daily  life.  Hence  the  difficulties  which  have 
been  encountered  and  surmounted  must  be  largely 
left  to  our  imagination,  working  upon  certain  gen- 
eral facts  and  multiplying  these  into  the  effort  and 
the  silent  endurance  of  months  and  years  and 
decades. 

The  great  work  of  Bible  translation  and  distri- 
62 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

bution  is  going  on  everywhere  continually.  The 
laborers  are  well-nigh  innumerable,  their  toil  in- 
calculable. None  of  them  is  paid  in  cash  accord- 
ing to  the  commercial  value  of  his  work.  They 
all  do  this  work  out  of  the  depths  of  a  passionate 
love.  They  may  be  utterly  wrong,  their  love  inde- 
fensible, their  toil  a  stupendous  blunder.  But 
there  it  is,  stupendous  at  any  rate,  and  covering 
the  earth  more  and  more  completely  year  by  year. 
These  untiring  toilers  are  placing  in  more  and  more 
homes  among  all  peoples,  without  any  discrimina- 
tion whatsoever,  the  pages  of  this  unique  Book,  the 
silent  witness  of  the  origin  of  the  Christian  man's 
faith  and  the  grounds  of  his  eternal  hope. 

The  difficulties  have  varied  of  course  in  kind 
and  degree  according  to  circumstances.  Some- 
times the  work  of  translation  has  been  undertaken 
by  men  of  comparatively  high  scholarship,  men 
who  like  Henry  Martyn,  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  a 
thorough  university  education.  At  other  times  it 
has  been  entered  upon  by  men  like  William  Carey, 
who,  without  a  thorough  preparation,  yet  pos- 
sessed a  native  genius  for  the  acquisition  of  lan- 
guages. But  in  a  large  number,  perhaps  the  ma- 
jority of  cases,  the  labor  of  translation  has  been 
undertaken  by  men  who  neither  had  a  high  train- 
ing nor  natural  genius  for  linguistic  work.  They 
were  men  of  good  natural  ability  who  never  would 
have  entered  upon  any  such  effort  in  their  home- 
lands, but  who  having  given  themselves  to  the 
task  of  converting  heathen  into  Christian  peoples, 
and,  finding  a  translated  Bible  quite  essential,  set 

63 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

themselves  with  a  stubbornness  born  of  their  cen- 
tral aim  and  deepest  passion  to  the  mastery  of  a 
native  language,  and  oftentimes  to  the  acquisi- 
tion or  deeper  study  of  Hebrew  and  Greek.  For 
example,  can  anything  be  more  pathetic  than  the 
position  of  the  first  missionaries  to  Greenland,  who 
found  themselves  unable  to  reach  the  people  with- 
out the  Scriptures,  and  yet  unable  to  translate  them, 
because  they  were  uneducated  men  without  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  grammar  of  their  own  language !  Yet  these 
men  did  surmount  even  these  frowning  mountains 
of  difficulty  by  the  exercise  of  a  humble  and  patient 
courage,  and  began  to  reduce  the  Esquimaux  lan- 
guage to  writing.  They  and  their  successors  toiled 
at  the  work  till  the  entire  Scriptures  were  trans- 
lated. Or  even  consider  the  case  of  a  man  like 
Robert  Moffat.  He  went  out  to  South  Africa  with 
only  the  most  meager  and  hurried  education.  He 
was  a  man  first  and  last  of  outward  activity,  who 
made  C07i  amove  long  journeys,  planted  and  culti- 
vated large  and  beautiful  gardens,  loved  in  fact  the 
open  air  and  physical  activity.  Yet  that  man  per- 
sisted for  many  years  in  the  task  of  translation, 
studied  various  versions  of  the  Scriptures,  spent 
hours  and  even  days  over  one  verse  or  clause,  to 
find  the  exact  shade  of  meaning  and  put  it  into  an 
equivalent  native  idiom.  The  result  was  that  he 
performed  the  rare  task  of  translating  the  whole 
Bible  with  his  own  hand,  completing  the  new  Tes- 
tament in  1838  and  the  entire  book  in  1857. 

Yet  again  the  difficulties  which  have  been  over- 
come must  be  estimated  by  a  glance  at  the  variety 

64 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

of  languages  into  wliich  these  translations  have 
been  made.  In  some  cases,  those,  for  example,  of 
Chinese,  Hindoostani,  Sanskrit,  Persian,  etc.,  mis- 
sionaries found  a  more  or  less  elaborate  native  lit- 
erature. For  centuries  literary  idioms  and  fashions 
had  been  formed  and  very  extensive  vocabularies 
developed.  The  man  who  desired  to  see  the  Scrip- 
tures take  rank  at  once  at  the  head  of  an  already 
abundant  native  literature  must  master  those  vocab- 
ularies, and  whether  he  employ  them  all  or  not, 
he  must  be  familiar  enough  with  the  idioms  and 
literary  forms,  that  he  may  choose  which  would  best 
suit  the  varied  portions  of  the  Scriptures.  Henry 
Martyn  was  wisely  advised  by  a  welhknown  Ori- 
entalist of  his  day  not  to  begin  translating  till  he 
had  "  resided  some  years  in  the  country.  He  said 
it  was  the  rock  on  which  missions  had  split,  that 
they  had  attempted  to  write  and  preach  before 
they  knew  the  language.  The  Lord's  prayer,  he 
said,  was  now  a  common  subject  of  ridicule  with 
the  people  on  account  of  the  manner  in  which  it 
had  been  translated."  ^  William  Carey,  in  many 
ways  the  greatest  missionary  of  them  all,  found 
himself  under  necessity  to  master  Sanskrit, 
which  he  calls  "perhaps  the  hardest  language 
in  the  world";  but  he  set  himself  to  it  with  his 
invincible  powers  of  application.  So  early  as  1798 
he  says:  "I  have  nearly  translated  the  Sanskrit 
grammar  and  dictionary  into  English,  and  have 
made  considerable  progress  in  compiling  a  diction- 


Life,  by  Dr.  Geo.  Smith,  p.  72. 
65 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ary,  Sanskrit,  including  Bengali  and  English." 
Even  in  the  case  of  these  literary  languages  the 
difficulties  were  not  confined  to  the  mastery  of 
idioms  and  finding  of  appropriate  translations. 
Referring  to  his  earliest  Bengali  version  in  1800, 
he  says:  "In  the  printing  I  have  to  look  over  the 
copy  and  correct  the  press,  which  is  much  more 
laborious  than  it  would  be  in  English,  because 
spelling,  writing,  printing,  etc.,  in  Bengali  is 
almost  a  new  thing,  and  we  have  in  a  manner  to  fix 
the  orthography."  ^  In  spite  of  these  difficulties, 
which  presented  themselves  in  connection  with 
each  language  which  Carey  and  his  colleagues  un- 
dertook to  learn  and  to  use  for  translation  pur- 
poses, he  succeeded  in  either  translating,  or  super- 
intending the  translation  of,  the  Bible  in  whole  or 
part  into  no  less  than  thirty-six  languages.  The 
whole  Scriptures  had  been  at  the  time  of  his  death, 
1834,  translated  into  no  less  than  seven  languages 
(Bengali,  Oorissa,  Assamese,  Sanskrit,  Hindi, 
Marathi  and  Chinese).  "The  Bengali,  Hindi, 
Marathi  and  Sanskrit  translations  were  his  own. 
The  Chinese  was  similarly  the  work  of  Marshman 
(his  colleague).  The  Hindi  versions  in  their  many 
dialects  and  the  Oorissa,  were  blocked  out  by  his  col- 
leagues and  the  pundits.  He  saw  through  the  press 
the  Hindoostani,  Persian,  Malay,  Tamil  and  other 
versions  of  the  whole  or  portions  of  the  Scriptures. 
He  ceased  not  night  and  day,  if  by  any  means 
with  a  loving  catholicity,  the  Word  of  Grod  might 


iLife,  by  Dr.  Geo.  Smith,  Ed.  2,  p.  188. 
66 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

be  given  to  the  millions."  ^  The  life  work  of  Will- 
iam Carey  is  one  of  the  most  wonderful  which  our 
world  has  seen,  not  less  for  its  difficulty,  its 
amount,  its  enthusiasm  and  its  influence  on  the 
history  of  the  race,  than  for  the  humility,  the  gen- 
tleness, the  patience  of  the  great  heart  that  under- 
took and  carried  it  forward  without  weariness  until 
the  close  of  his  arduous  and  brilliant  career. 

When  we  turn  to  the  unwritten  languages  of 
the  simpler  peoples  we  find  the  missionary  facing 
problems  of  another  but  oftentimes  no  less  puz- 
zling kind.  The  learning  of  the  language  must  be 
derived  wholly  from  conversation  and  the  grammar 
mastered  very  slowly  and  painfully,  as  the  inflec- 
tions and  constructions  grow  familiar.  Then  fol- 
lows the  task  of  finding  letters  to  represent  the 
various  sounds.  When  these  difficulties  have  been 
surmounted,  the  preacher  and  translator  finds 
himself  in  many  cases  confronted  by  the  fact  that 
the  natives,  having  very  poor  ideas  of  a  spiritual 
world,  have  no  words  to  express  the  central  facts 
contained  in  the  message  of  the  Gospel.  It  is 
only  with  extreme  labor,  care  and  patience  that 
words  are  gradually  found  which  can  be  used  with- 
out misunderstanding  or  with  a  minimum  of  dan- 
ger. Then  these  words  have  to  be  explained  with 
new  shades  of  meaning,  so  that  a  gradual  trans- 
formation is  effected,  such  as  took  place  in  many 
Greek  words  when  they  came  to  be  used  for  the  pur- 
poses of  Christian  experience  and  Christian  thought 


1 "  Life,"  by  Dr.  Goo.  Smith,  p.  214. 
67 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

at  the  beginning  of  our  era.  No  one  who  has  not 
attempted  this  task  or  heard  much  about  it  and 
pondered  it  sympathetically  can  easily  conceive 
of  the  work  which  it  has  implied  and  implies 
to=day  throughout  the  world.  Some  cases  of 
difficulty  have  occasioned  considerable  contro- 
versy, as  in  China  where  there  has  been  seri- 
ous difference  of  opinion  regarding  the  word 
which  should  be  employed  for  the  name  of 
God.  In  a  certain  part  of  India  difficulty  has 
been  found  with  the  word  "flesh."  The  near- 
est native  equivalent  which  could  be  found  meant 
"  flesh^meat "  in  distinction  from  bone  or  blood. 
It  is  easy  to  see  what  ludicrous  misunderstandings 
this  word  would  suggest  in  many  parts  of  Scripture. 
For  example  one  native,  on  the  text,  "  I  will  not 
fear  what  flesh  can  do  unto  me,"  said:  "  It  is  plain 
enough,  but  it  is  a  very  curious  thing  to  say.  It 
means  of  course,  *  I  will  not  fear  even  though  the 
eating  of  flesh  causes  me  indigestion.' "  In  Jap- 
anese the  translators  finding  no  word  for  "  kiss  " 
had  to  manufacture  one,  and  then,  I  suppose, 
had  to  explain  its  meaning.  In  a  certain  West 
African  language,  the  missionaries  found  that 
in  translating  the  word  "  heaven,"  they  had 
employed  a  native  word  signifying  only  "  at 
the  top  of  a  tree  "  or  *'of  a  pole."  But  nowhere  has 
there  been  serious  failure  of  perseverance  and 
faithfulness.  Everywhere  these  and  many  other 
difficulties  have  been  or  are  being  gradually  over- 
come and  the  natives  are  receiving  in  their  own 
language  this  Book  of  God. 

68 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

Thus  far  I  have  attempted  to  describe  the  ex- 
tent and  nature  of  this  work  of  translating  the 
Bible  which  has  proceeded  at  so  rapid  a  rate  dur- 
ing this  century  of  Foreign  Missions.  Let  me  now 
attempt  to  describe  something  of  the  value  of  this 
kind  of  labor  to  the  church  and  to  mankind  at  large. 
It  may  be  assumed  that  there  must  be  some  deep 
significance  attaching  to  this  volume  which  has 
made  it  seem  not  only  worth  while,  but  morally 
imperative,  to  so  many  men  in  so  many  parts  of 
the  world  to  engage  in  its  translation. 

First  of  all,  it  is  obvious  that,  judged  even  from 
the  scientific  point  of  view,  these  achievements 
must  have  a  great  value.  One  of  the  many  fields 
in  which  our  century  has  seen  scientific  advance 
of  an  almost  incalculable  extent  is  that  of  lan- 
guage. Comparative  Philology  and  Comparative 
Grammar  are  children  of  only  a  recent  generation, 
and  yet  no  one  man  is  now  able  to  follow  out  all 
their  ramifications  for  himself  at  first  hand.  The 
languages  of  all  races  are  being  subjected  to  the 
closest  scrutiny  and  the  results  are  being  used  to 
throw  light  upon  other  most  important  depart- 
ments of  investigation.  For  example,  Ethnology, 
while  it  owes  much  to  the  study  of  the  anatomy  of 
the  races,  especially  to  craniology,  and  much  also 
to  archaeology  with  its  investigation  of  the  relics 
of  antiquity  and  comparison  of  these  with  utensils 
and  weapons  in  use  to=day,  yet  derives  a  large 
mass  of  its  material,  sometimes  the  most  certain 
and  trustworthy,  from  the  labors  which  have  been 
spent   upon   the  comparative  study  of  languages. 

69 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

The  same  is  true  of  the  science  of  Comparative 
Religion.  Professor  Max  Mtiller  has  made  us 
familiar  with  some  of  the  invaluable  results  which 
accrue  to  that  science  from  a  careful  study  of  the 
history  of  significant  words.  Now  it  is  perfectly 
safe  to  say,  that  no  one  body  of  men  has  done  so 
much  to  make  the  widest  and  most  thorough  study 
of  languages  possible  than  the  missionaries  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  This  is  a  glory,  which  like 
those  of  the  pioneer  and  the  observer  of  natural 
life,  can  only  belong  in  a  much  less  degree  to  the 
men  who  go  out  into  the  field  in  the  next  or  any 
later  century.  Through  all  history,  the  nineteenth 
century  will  be  remembered  for  this.  Many  of  its 
other  scientific  attainments  will  be  surpassed  and 
remembered  only  by  the  most  minute  student  of  the 
history  of  physics  and  biology.  But  no  student  of 
language  will  ever  be  able  to  forget  that  it  was  in 
the  nineteenth  century  when  all  the  principal 
languages  of  the  world  were  used  for  the  transla- 
tion of  this  one  book,  and  thus  a  universal  basis  of 
linguistic  comparison  was  established.  In  that 
future  time  many  languages  and  dialects  will 
have  disappeared,  of  which  no  record  would 
or  could  have  been  kept  other  than  these  trans- 
lations of  Scripture  which  have  been  made 
by  missionaries  of  our  own  and  three  preceding 
generations.  Professor  Max  Mtiller  has  empha- 
sized the  importance  of  missionaries  in  elucidating 
the  problems  of  the  dialectic  life  of  language. 
He  says  that  "  whatever  is  known  of  the  dialects 
of  savage  tribes  is  chiefly  or  entirely  due  to  the 

70 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

missionary."  ^  It  is  easy  to  see  many  reasons 
why  this  should  be  the  case.  Not  only  are  mis- 
sionaries in  the  very  large  majority  of  cases  the 
only  Europeans  or  Americans  of  education  who 
make  prolonged  residence  among  savage  peoples 
and  so  have  fullest  opportunities  for  mastery  of 
native  languages;  they  are  also  bound  by  the  most 
solemn  motives  of  their  lives  to  give  the  closest 
attention  to  the  study  of  these  languages.  They 
know  that  with  imperfect  idioms  and  inaccurate 
pronunciation,  they  seriously  hamper  their  work. 
While  the  more  completely  they  speak  as  the  na- 
tives do,  the  more  deep  and  persuasive  is  the  spir- 
itual influence  which  they  may  hope  to  exert. 
Hence  we  have  the  spectacle  of  literally  thousands 
of  men  and  women  all  over  the  world  who  have 
obtained  a  familiarity  with  many  scores  of  lan< 
guages  such  as  few  scholars  would  or  could  have 
attained  in  the  mere  interests  of  philological  re- 
search. Moreover  these  missionaries  have  done 
more  than  merely  translate  the  Scriptures.  In 
nearly  all  cases  it  has  been  found  necessary,  in 
order  to  teach  the  natives,  to  write  and  publish 
lesson=books,  grammars,  and  in  very  many  cases 
even  dictionaries  of  the  native  languages.  Some  of 
these  works  have  proved  to  be  of  immense  im- 
portance to  scholarship  in  the  most  important  ori- 
ental languages.  For  example,  there  is  the  great 
Chinese  dictionary  of  Robert  Morrison  in  six  large 
quarto  volumes,  which  he  compiled  through  six- 


^  Max  Mailer's  "  Science  of  Language,"  Vol.  I,  pp.  58,  471. 
71 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man. 

teen  years  of  incessant  labors,  and  which  cost  the 
East  India  Company  over  fifty  thousand  dollars 
to  print.  This  work  had  compelled  Morrison  to 
gather  a  library  of  ten  thousand  Chinese  books, 
and  it  contained  fifty  thousand  words  printed  in 
Chinese  characters.  That  work  has  been  the  basis 
of  all  future  progress  in  the  scientific  study  of  that 
language. 

The  breadth  of  view,  the  calm  and  yet 
strong  powers  of  discrimination  which  have  been 
displayed  by  many  of  these  men,  finds  nowhere 
more  adequate  expression  than  in  a  letter  of 
Carey's,  written  in  1811.  "  I  have  of  late  been 
"  much  impressed  with  the  vast  importance  of  lay- 
"  ing  a  foundation  for  Biblical  criticism  in  the 
"  East  by  preparing  grammars  of  the  different  lan- 
"  guages  into  which  we  have  translated  or  may 
"  translate  the  Bible.  Without  some  such  step, 
"  they  who  follow  us  will  have  to  wade  through 
"  the  same  labors  that  I  have  in  order  to  stand 
"  merely  upon  the  same  ground  that  I  now  stand 
"  upon.  If,  however,  elementary  books  are  pro- 
"  vided,  the  labor  will  be  greatly  contracted;  and  a 
"  person  will  be  able  in  a  short  time  to  acquire 
"  that  which  has  cost  me  years  of  study  and  toil. 
"  The  necessity  which  lies  upon  me  of  acquiring 
"  so  many  languages,  obliges  me  to  study  and  work 
"  out  the  grammars  of  each  of  them,  and  to  at- 
"  tend  closely  to  their  irregularities  and  peculiari- 
"  ties.  I  have,  therefore,  already  published  gram- 
"  mars  of  three  of  them,  viz:  the  Bengali,  the  San- 
"  skrit,  and  the  Mahratta.      To  these  I  have  re- 

72 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

"  solved  to  add  the  grammars  of  the  Telinga,  Kur- 
"  nata,  Orissa,  Punjabi,  Kashmeeri,  Goojarati, 
"  Nepalese,  and  Assam  languages.  Two  of  these 
"  are  now  in  the  press,  and  I  hope  to  have  two  or 
"  three  more  of  them  out  by  the  last  of  next  year. 
"  These,"  he  adds  with  quiet  humor,  "  may  not 
"  only  be  useful  in  the  way  I  stated,  but  may  serve 
"  to  furnish  an  answer  to  a  question  which  has 
"  more  than  once  been  repeated,  '  How  can  these 
''  men  translate  in  so  great  a  number  of  languages?' 
"  Few  people  know  what  may  be  done  till  they 
"try  and  persevere  in  what  they  undertake."^  In 
the  library  of  Serampore  college  there  are  pre- 
served five  colossal  volumes  of  a  polyglot  diction- 
ary which  had  been  prejpared  by  the  Carey  band  of 
workers  for  use  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible. 

Surely  no  higher  service  can  be  rendered  to  a 
people  than  that  which  Dante  did  for  Italy,  and 
Luther  for  Germany,  and  the  translators  of  the 
English  Bible  for  the  English  speaking  race,  when 
to  these  lands  and  races  books  were  given  which 
once  for  all  made  each  of  these  languages  a  liter- 
ary vehicle  and  through  it  gradually  penetrated 
the  great  masses  of  the  peojDle  with  the  glory  of 
new  and  inspiring  ideas.  Yet  this  has  been  done 
over  and  over  again  in  our  own  day  for  various 
peoples  by  these  missionaries  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion. This  thought  has  been  finely  expressed  by 
Dr.  George  Smith  in  his  Life  of  William  Carey." 
'Like  the  growth  of  a  tree  is  the  development  of 


«  Life  "  by  Dr.  Geo.  Smith,  pp.  220,  221.     2  pp.  041  f. 
7.S 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

'  a  language,  as  really  and  as  strictly  according  to 
'law.  In  savage  lands  like  those  of  Africa  the 
'  missionary  finds  the  living  germs  of  speech,  ar- 
'  ranges  them  for  the  first  time  in  grammatical 
'  order,  expresses  them  in  written  and  printed 
'  form,  using  the  simplest  and  most  perfect  and 
'  most  universal  character  of  all — the  Roman,  and 
'  at  one  bound  gives  the  most  degraded  of  the 
'  dark  peoples  the  possibility  of  the  highest  civi- 
'  lization  and  the  divinest  future.  In  countries 
'  like  India  and  China  where  civilization  has  long 
'  ago  reached  its  highest  level,  and  has  been  de- 
'  dining  for  want  of  the  salt  of  a  universal  Chris- 
'  tianity,  it  is  the  missionary  again  who  interferes 
'  for  the  highest  ends,  but  by  a  different  pro- 
'  cess.  Mastering  the  complex  classical  speech 
'  and  literature  of  the  learned  a  ad  priestly  class, 
'  and  living  with  his  Master's  sympathy  among 
'  the  people  whom  that  class  oppresses,  he  takes 
'  the  popular  dialects  which  are  instinct  with  the 
'  life  of  the  future;  where  they  are  widely  luxuri- 
'  ant  he  brings  them  under  law,  where  they  are 
'  barren  he  enriches  them  from  the  parent  stock, 
•'  so  as  to  make  them  the  vehicles  of  ideas  such  as 
'  the  Greek  gave  to  Europe,  and  in  time  he  brings 
'  to  the  birth  nations  worthy  of  the  name  by  a 
'  national  language  and  literature  lighted  up  with 
'  the  ideas  of  the  Book  which  he  is  the  first  to 
'  translate.  This  was  what  Carey  did  for  the 
'  speech  of  the  Bengalees." 

It  is  only  necessary  to  do  here,  as  we  must  in 
the    other  studies  of  missionary  labor    in  which 

74 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

we  engage,  exert  our  imagination  to  see  this 
kind  of  work  being  done  in  varying  measure 
throughout  the  world.  Wherever  these  more  than 
three  hundred  and  fifty  languages  and  dialects  are 
spoken,  the  missionary  is  at  work  translating  the 
Bible  verse  by  verse,  writing  the  lesson^books,  the 
grammars,  the  vocabularies  and  dictionaries,  the 
hymn-books,  the  prayer-books,  the  evangelistic 
tracts  and  the  school  geographies,  histories,  and  so 
on.  Then  we  may  grasp,  but  even  then  only 
faintly,  the  enormous  service  to  the  science  of  lan- 
guage which  has  been  rendered  by  the  spread  of 
Christian  missions. 

It  is  time  now  to  approach  this  matter  from  a 
more  intimate  point,  from  that,  namely,  of  the 
Christian  religion  itself.  It  is  a  natural  question 
to  ask,  Why  has  all  this  labor  been  undertaken? 
It  is  obvious  that  no  mere  scientific  interest  could 
possibly  have  led  to  such  self=denial.  No  man 
ever  thought  of  translating  the  Bible  into  a  bar- 
barian tongue  for  the  sake  of  i^hilology.  Many 
great  oriental  scholars  have  been  interested  in  the 
languages  of  India  and  China  and  their  literatures, 
but  very  few  of  them  have  cared  much  about  the 
provision  of  a  higher  or  better  literature  for  the 
people  who  speak  those  languages.  It  is  the  re- 
ligious motive  alone  which  can  account  for  this 
work.  To  the  Christian  man  one  of  the  most  sol- 
emn and  indisputable  obligations  of  life  is,  to  seek 
the  salvation  of  the  world.  His  loyalty  to  Jesus 
Christ  includes  loyalty  to  the  sublime  purpose  of 
Christ.     His  acceptance  of  that  which  he  believes 

75 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

and  feels  to  be  the  supreme  grace  of  God,  makes 
him  a  debtor  to  the  world.  He  is  recreant  to  the 
noblest  instincts  of  the  new  heart  and  the  new  life,  if 
he  cherishes  no  desire  and  makes  no  effort  to  see 
this  divine  experience  pass  to  other  men  and  wom- 
en. Hence  the  willingness  of  hundreds  of  mis- 
sionaries to  undertake  the  kind  of  work  which  we 
have  been  trying  to  measure  and  understand. 
For  the  Bible  is  deemed  essential  by  all  evangel- 
ical Christians  to  a  healthful  Christian  life.  The 
Mohammedan  may  be  able  to  count  up  his  con- 
verts in  Central  Africa  by  hundreds  when  they 
have  only  the  most  meager  conception  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Koran.  The  Roman  Catholic  may  be 
content  to  count  as  converts  to  Christianity  all 
those  whom  he  can  persuade  to  be  baptized,  to 
learn  certain  prayers  and  attend  the  mass.  But 
the  evangelical  Christian  has  at  once  a  harder  and 
a  higher  task  before  him.  He  will  not  baptise  un- 
til he  has  somewhat  adequately  taught  his  cate- 
chumen and  he  does  not  consider  that  teaching  is 
sufficient  until  the  Spirit  of  God  has  given  evident 
signs  of  His  will  in  the  matter,  by  a  changed 
mind  and  heart  and  a  transformed  manner  of  life. 
Now  this  teaching,  which  is  absolutely  essential, 
cannot  be  carried  on  by  mere  word  of  mouth,  by 
committing  to  memory  the  sayings  and  traditions 
on  which  faith  fastens  and  by  which  conduct  is 
molded.  The  hope  of  the  Christian  religion  lies 
in  the  constant  presentation  of  its  substance  to 
the  minds  of  men  through  the  Scriptures.  For  it 
is  a  clear  lesson  of  past  experience,  that  whereso- 

76 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

ever  this  ceases  to  be  done,  the  power  of  this  relig- 
ion begins  to  wane  and  the  outlines  of  a  Christian 
character  begin  to  grow  dim.  The  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity upon  the  social  and  family  and  individual 
life  of  the  European  peoples  has  always  been  pro- 
portionate to  their  familiarity  with  the  person  and 
the  work  of  the  Savior  as  He  is  depicted  in  the 
New  Testament.  In  those  countries  where 
the  Bible  has  been  a  sealed  book,  the  priest  has 
stepped  forth  to  occupy  its  place  and  has  striven  to 
become  the  medium  of  communication  between 
the  human  spirit  and  the  divine.  That  has  al- 
ways meant  a  more  or  less  rapid  descent  into  igno- 
rance, superstition  and  practical  heathenism.  As 
soon  as  the  Bible  has  broken  through  the  fetters 
of  priestcraft  and  once  more  found  admittance 
to  the  homes  of  the  people,  the  life  of  direct  fel- 
lowshij)  with  God  has  been  once  more  established. 
The  most  striking  proofs  of  the  effect  of  the  Bible 
are  to  be  found  in  the  contrast  between  Roman  Cath- 
olic missions,  with  their  results  in  heathen  lands, 
and  Evangelical  missions.  It  is  well  known  that 
India  and  Japan  were  mission  fields  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  centuries  before  the  Protestant  world 
thoroughly  awoke  to  its  task.  It  is  also  well 
known  that  these  missions,  apparently  successful 
as  far  as  number  was  concerned,  did  almost  noth- 
ing to  illumine  and  purify  the  peoples.  They 
substituted  new  idols,  as  it  seemed,  for  the  old; 
new  priesthoods  for  the  old; new  forms  and  more 
solemn  rites  of  worship.  But  still  baptism  and 
the  mass  simply  took  the  place  of  the  other  magic 

77 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

acts  to  which  supernatural  efficacy  had  already 
been  attributed.  No  Bible  meant  practically  no 
Christ,  and  no  Christ  meant  no  living  faith,  no 
consciousness  of  fellowship  with  God.^  But 
where  that  is  not  attained,  Christianity  is  not 
attained,  the  real  heart  of  the  religion  and  its 
most  sublime  boon  is  not  realized. 

What,  then,  has  been  the  result  in  this  one 
regard  of  the  wide-extended  translation  of  the 
Scriptures  during  this  century?  In  a  word  it 
may  be  said  that  abundant  testimony  comes  from 
all  the  regions  where  these  four  hundred  modern 
versions  are  being  circulated,  and  the  testimony 
combines  to  show  that  it  is  beyond  human  lan- 
guage to  express  the  influence  of  this  unique  volume. 
Many,  of  course,  have  read  it  and  have  not  become 
Christians.  But  this  is  only  what  the  nature  of 
the  religion  and  its  history  from  the  beginning, 
aye,  from  the  hour  when  they  shouted,  "Crucify 
Him,"  would  lead  us  to  expect.  The  significant 
facts  are  connected  with  the  multitudes  who 
through  the  reading  of  these  pages  have  found 
coming  upon  them  the  same  experience  as  up- 
on all  who  have  entered  into  the  true  Christian 
life  from  the  time  of  the  apostles  to  our  own. 
The  fact  is  that  the  preaching  and  teaching  mis- 
sionaries are,  in  some  lands  outstripped  by  this 
silent  herald  of  divine  truth.     We  are   told   that 


^  It  is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  successors  of  St.  Francis 
Xavier  in  Japan  translated  a  good  many  books  and  tried  to 
educate  the  people,  but  the  Bible  was  not  translated. 

78 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

the  very  first  edition  of  Carey's  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  into  Bengali,  imperfect  as  it  was, 
was  not  without  its  self^evidencing  power.  "  Seven- 
teen years  after,  when  the  mission  extended  to  the 
old  capital  of  Dacca,  there  were  found  several  villages 
of  Hindoo=^born  peasants  who  had  given  up  idohwor- 
ship,  were  renowned  for  their  truthfulness,  and,  as 
searching  for  a  true  teacher  come  from  God, 
called  themselves  "Satya-gooroos."  They  traced 
their  ne  w  faith  to  a  much= worn  book  kept  in  a  wooden 
box  in  one  of  their  villages.  No  one  could  say 
whence  it  had  come;  all  they  knew  was  that  they 
had  possessed  it  for  many  years.  It  was  Carey's 
first  Bengali  version  of  the  New  Testament  of  our 
Lord  and  Savior  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  wide  and 
elastic  bounds  of  Hindooism  and  even  amid  fanatic- 
al Mussulmans  beyond  the  frontier,  the  Bible, 
dimly  understood  without  a  teacher,  has  led  to 
puritan  sects  like  this.  ^  " 

Or  take  an  instance  from  another  land.  In 
Japan  there  arose  a  few  years  ago  a  young 
man,  Neesima,  who  did  more  for  the  higher 
education  of  his  fellow  countrymen  than  any 
other.  He  was  the  far-sighted  and  enthusias- 
tic founder  of  the  Doshisha,  the  pioneer  university, 
if  we  may  use  the  term,  among  that  remarkable 
and  fascinating  people.  Neesima  was  a  man  of 
remarkable  Christian  experience,  who  throughout 
his  educational  labors  kept  in  view  the  evangeliza- 
tion of  his  country.     He  was  born  and   brought 

^  Wm.  Carey,  by  Dr.  Geo.  Smith. 
79 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

up  in  a  family  where  he  had  no  opportunity  to 
learn  aught  of  the  Christian  religion.  At  about 
twenty  years  of  age  he  stumbled  on  a  book  in 
Chinese  which  consisted  of  extracts  from  the  Bible. 
These  broken  pieces  of  the  story  of  revelation 
awoke  him.  He  determined  to  discover  more  about 
this  marvelous,  this  illuminating  literature.  It  was 
during  that  dark  period  when  Japan  was  closed  to 
foreigners,  and  Neesima,  seeing  no  hope  of  light 
unless  from  foreigners,  fled  his  country.  He 
reached  Singapore  and  there  finding  a  copy  of  the 
Scriptures  for  sale  he  actually,  and  against  the 
whole  sentiment  and  tradition  of  his  class,  sold  his 
sword  in  order  to  purchase  this  book.  Hearing 
that  from  America  the  men  had  come  who  knew 
most  about  this  book,  he  resolved  to  sail  thither. 
On  the  voyage  he  read  alone  and  unaided  in  its 
pages.  At  last  those  words  which  have  proved 
themselves  light  and  life  to  so  many  of  the  sons  of 
men  passed  under  his  scrutiny:  "  God  so  loved  the 
world  that  He  gave  His  only  begotten  Son,  that 
whosoever  believeth  on  Him  should  not  perish  but 
have  everlasting  life."  This  verso  was  his  golden 
gate,  and  Neesima  was  one  more  added  to  the 
innumerable  host  who,  through  the  central  message 
of  this  book,  have  found  a  living  and  personal 
fellowship  with  the  living  God. 

Or  again  take  the  case  of  Madagascar  during  the 
great  persecution  which  lasted  nearly  a  quarter  of 
a  century.  The  missionaries,  after  barely  twenty 
years  of  work  in  that  country,  were  compelled  to 
leave.    They  left  nothing  behind  them  except  the 

80 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

Bible  and  the  men  and  women  who  had  already 
become  Christians.  But  that  was  enough.  When 
the  enemy  came  and  the  churches  were  broken  up, 
this  Book  was  multii)lied  enormously  in  value. 
Copies  of  it  were  most  carefully  hidden  away. 
People  would  walk  long  distances  to  have  it  read 
in  secret  or  to  buy  even  a  very  small  portion  of  it. 
Those  who  could  read  taught  others  and  the  mes- 
sage with  its  strange  power  was  spreading  even 
through  flames  and  torture  and  bloodshed.  The 
result  was  that  when  the  country  was  opened 
again  to  civilization,  the  missionaries,  who  were  of 
course  the  first  to  enter,  found  that,  although  thou- 
sands of  Christians  had  been  put  to  death,  there 
were  more  Christians  at  the  end  of  the  long  trial 
than  at  the  beginning.  Undoubtedly  this  most 
remarkable  outcome  of  that  protracted  and  system- 
atic effort  to  exterminate  the  Christian  Church 
was  due  almost  entirely  to  the  fact  that  the  Bible 
had  been  translated  and  circulated,  and  could  be 
read  at  first  hand.  Mere  preaching  could  not  have 
done  it;  organization  had  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
It  was  the  Scriptures,  possessed  and  owned  by 
the  people,  which  maintained  and  increased  their 
enthusiasm  for  the  faith  and  life  of  the  Christian 
Church. 

Or  again  let  us  pass  into  Central  Africa,  up  in- 
to the  great  kingdom  of  Uganda  where  Mackay  la- 
bored and  where  the  brave  Bishop  Hannington 
perished.  No  story  of  missions  during  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century  is  more  inspiring,  more  thrill- 
ing, almost  over-awing  than  the  story  of  Uganda, 

ax 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Here  again  we  find  that  from  the  very  first  the 
missionaries  aimed  at  translating  and  circulating 
the  Scriptures.  The  consequence  is  seen  to-day 
in  the  intense  interest  of  those  people  so  recently 
savage,  in  every  sense  of  the  term,  in  this  Book. 
They  buy  it  as  fast  as  it  can  be  supplied.  They 
read  it  in  their  homes,  discuss  its  histories,  its 
teachings,  in  twos  and  threes,  in  families  and  cas- 
ual groups.  They  borrow  English  reference  Bi- 
bles from  the  missionaries  to  aid  them  in  their 
study.  To  them,  as  to  the  hunted  martyrs  of 
Madagascar,  as  to  the  learned  pundits  and  deeply 
religious  peasants  of  India,  as  to  the  enthusiastic 
youth  of  Japan,  this  Book  has  brought  light  and 
purity,  the  awakening  of  mind  and  heart  to  the 
noblest  ideals  and  highest  hopes. 

Go  throughout  the  world  and  the  result  is  the 
same.  In  Bolivia  a  colporteur  entering  a  mere 
hovel  of  the  poorest  description,  finds  a  man  read- 
ing a  book  which  he  hurriedly  tries  to  hide.  It  is 
the  Spanish  Protestant  Bible.  Inquiry  proves 
that  he  thoroughly  enjoys  it  and  that  more  than 
twenty  of  his  companions  are  reading  the  same 
copy.  In  Italy  where  Romanism  has  done  her 
best  to  keep  this  Book  from  the  people  it  can  be 
kept  no  longer.  Educated  people,  whether  pas- 
sionately sceptical  or  Romanist,  are  one  after  an- 
other conquered  by  it.  An  army  officer  sternly 
prohibits  the  sale  of  the  Book  among  his  soldiers. 
One  of  his  own  attendants  secretly  buys  a  copy 
which  the  officer  begins  to  read.  It  conquers  him 
and  he  becomes  a  man  of  the  Book.     These  are 

821 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

mere    specimens    brought    from   here   and   there 
among  various  classes  and   races  of  men.     They 
are  bits  of  evidence  which  we  must  multiply  by 
thousands  and  tens  of  thousands,  if  we  would  give 
them  their  scientific  value.     The  two  hundred  and 
fifty  millions  of  copies  of  the  Bible  circulated  in 
four  hundred  versions  throughout  the  world,  are 
doing  this  kind  of  work  throughout  all  nations. 
The  educated  and  the  savage,  the  hardened  canni- 
bal and  the  hardened  Romanist,  the  eager  heathen 
seeking  light  and  peace  for  his  conscience,  and 
the  cynical  sceptic  denying  that  there  is  any  light 
or  peace   or    any   need   of    either    for    the    con- 
science, are  all  being  overcome  by  this  Book,  and 
brought  to  the  experience  of  the  Christian  faith. 
We  are  here  presented,  then,  with  the  fact  that 
this  Book  is  laying  the  deepest  foundation  for  the 
unification  of  the  human  race.  Its  adaptation  to  all 
casts  of  mind  and  all  conditions  of  civilization  is 
being  demonstrated  beyond  the  possibility  of  in- 
telligent denial.     It  is  not  peculiar   in   molding 
European  history,  it  is  now   making   history  all 
over  the  world.  Of  all  facts  upon  the  earth,  it  liter- 
ally contains  the  deepest  and  strongest  force,  which 
is  at  work  amongst  mankind.     It  is  evident,  then, 
that  if  any  man  of  purely  scientific  interest  wishes 
to  estimate  the  factors  which  are  at  work  in  the 
social  evolution  of  to-day,  he  must  name  the  Bible 
among  the  very  highest.     And  if  he  is  to  explain 
these  factors,  is  it  not  incumbent  upon  him  to  ac- 
count for  the  Bible  and  its  influence?    It  will  not 
help  him  much  merely  to  investigate  the  author- 

83 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ship  of  its  various  portions  and  formulate  theories 
regarding  their  independence  or  dependence  on 
one  another.  What  if  Moses  did  not  write  the  Pen- 
tateuch, or  the  Apostle  John,  the  Fourth  Gospel? 
The  work  which  this  book  is  doing  as  a  whole  re- 
mains to  be  accounted  for  as  an  entirely  distinct 
problem.  Nor  will  it  help  the  investigation  very 
much,  if  a  man  sit  down  and  write  an  elaborate 
treatise  against  the  miracles  of  Scripture.  The 
fact  remains  still  to  be  explained  that  to-day,  after 
eighteen  hundred  years  of  existence,  the  writings 
of  this  book  are  the  means  of  conferring  upon  men 
the  consciousness  of  fellowship  with  God,  and  are 
actually  giving  new  life  to  millions  of  people  who 
belong  to  what  were  considered  ''  decadent  races." 
Nor  will  it  help  to  say,  that  it  is  the  magnetism  of 
the  missionaries,  or  the  touch  of  a  superior  civili- 
zation, or  the  influence  of  a  purer  literature  that 
produces  these  results  in  heathendom.  The  expe- 
riences which  we  have  described  are  not  due  finally 
to  these  causes.  For  when  the  missionary  preaches 
he  refers  to  the  Bible  as  his  supreme  authority, 
and  he  constantly  bases  his  teaching  upon  and 
compares  his  own  experience  with  that  which  is 
there  described.  Moreover,  the  Bible  did  not  come 
out  of  a  civilization  which  was  in  any  great  meas- 
ure, if  at  all,  superior  to  that  of  India  or  of  China. 
Nor  on  the  other  hand  does  it  help  us  much  merely 
to  say  that  the  Bible  produces  these  eflPects  be- 
cause it  is  inspired.  We  still  want  to  know  the 
relation  that  exists  between  its  substance  and  its 
effects.    It  must  b©  the  substance  of  the  book  and 

84 


The  Missionary  as  Translator 

not  its  form,  its  substance  and  not  the  mere 
method  of  its  inditement,  which  accounts  for  its 
place  and  function  in  that  progress  of  man  which 
is  proceeding  at  so  unparalleled  a  rate  to=day. 
The  Christian  man  explains  it,  as  we  have  seen 
already,  by  saying  that  the  Bible  is  that  book 
which  describes  the  revelation  of  God  and  the  re- 
demption of  the  world,  it  is  that  book  which  more 
clearly,  more  convincingly,  and  more  powerfully 
than  any  other  that  could  be  written,  presents  the 
figure  and  reveals  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ,  the 
Lord  and  Savior  of  the  race.  There  is  its  power, 
there  is  the  secret  of  its  fascination,  says  the  Chris- 
tian man.  It  is  the  Book  through  which  now  God 
speaks  to  men,  because  it  describes  God's  own  acts 
among  men,  for  mankind.  Those  acts  are  its  sub- 
stance. It  is  as  men  find  those  acts  bearing  down 
upon  their  own  consciences,  their  own  affections, 
their  own  ideals,  their  own  wills,  that  transform- 
ation begins. 

85 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AND  EDUCATION. 

The  close  connection  which  exists  between  pop- 
ular education  and  advanced  civilization  is  one  of 
the  most  obvious  facts  which  our  century  has 
brought  to  light.  No  less  remarkable  is  the  close 
connection  which  has  always  subsisted  between 
the  Christian  faith  and  the  work  of  education. 
No  other  religion  appears  to  require  education  or 
even  naturally  to  stimulate  it.  Mohammedanism 
which  enjoins  amongst  its  followers  a  certain  de- 
gree of  knowledge  of  the  teachings  of  the  Koran, 
is  content  if  these  are  learned  by  rote.  Buddhism 
and  other  religions  of  the  East  possess  more  or 
less  extensive  religious  literatures,  and  there  are 
classes  of  people  to  whom  these  are  familiar,  and 
who  feel  themselves  under  a  religious  necessity  to 
read  them;  but  again  none  of  these  religions  has 
done  anything  either  to  stimulate  intellectual  in- 
terest in  other  matters  than  those  immediately 
concerned  with  the  religious  instinct,  or  to  make 
the  conferring  of  education  upon  the  general 
masses  of  the  people  a  religious  duty.  How  is  it 
that  wherever  Christianity,  in  its  evangelical 
form,  extends,  thither  the  work  of  education  inevi- 
tably goes  with  it?  In  a  land  like  this  where 
government  has  made  the  work  of  education  an 
essential  part  of  the  life  and  growth  of  even  the 

83 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

smallest  communities,  it  seems  only  a  matter  of 
course  to  every  one  that  the  work  should  be  done 
on  this  large  scale.  No  one  seems  to  see  that 
there  exists  a  very  close  connection  between,  I  do 
not  say  education,  but  universal  education  and 
religion.  Indeed,  we  have  become  so  accustomed  to 
this  idea  of  a  universal  and  popular  education,  that  we 
have  come  to  deem  it  what  we  call  a  natural  right, 
and  we  can  hardly  imagine  the  existence  of  a  civ- 
ilized government  which  does  not  give  a  foremost 
place  in  its  work  to  the  education  of  the  young. 
The  fact  is,  however,  that  we  owe  the  popular  edu- 
cation of  modern  European  countries  to  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  Rulers  did  not  dream  either  of  the 
possibility  or  the  advisability,  still  less  of  the  duty, 
of  conferring  it  upon  their  subjects  and  citizens 
until  after  the  Reformation.  Then  education  be- 
gan to  spread  among  the  people.  In  Germany 
and  Scotland  especially,  provision  was  made,  be- 
fore any  other  great  nation  had  seen  the  ideal,  for 
the  establishment  of  local  schools  where  the  poor- 
est might  have  the  elements  of  education  taught 
to  them.  And  why?  Because  in  those  countries 
there  lived  certain  men  who  were  determined  to 
make  it  possible  for  every  citizen  to  read  the  Bi- 
ble. Where  the  Reformation  was  not  so  thorough, 
as  in  France,  or  where  it  was  accompanied  by  the 
retention  of  a  certain  theory  of  authority,  and  a 
certain  doctrine  of  sacramental  grace,  as  in  Eng- 
land, there  popular  education  spread  much  more 
slowly.  Where,  as  in  Spain  and  Italy,  the  Refor- 
mation did  not  penetrate,  popular  education  has 

87 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

hardly  been  attained  even  to  this  day.  Not  only 
is  it  religion  as  such,  but  what  we  call  evangelical 
religion  which,  as  a  matter  of  history,  has  given 
the  primary  impulse  towards  the  establishment  of 
universal  popular  education. 

I  may  add  that,  as  I  believe,  evidence  could  be 
obtained  from  the  history  of  education  even  in 
Britain  and  America  to  prove,  that  in  those  sec- 
tions of  society  where  interest  in  evangelical 
Christianity  is  on  the  wane,  the  conviction  of 
the  necessity  of  popular  education  and  personal 
interest  in  it  begin  to  lose  their  force.  Just  as 
only  a  society  which  is  nourished  on  the  ideals  of 
evangelical  Christendom  can  make  true  democracy 
permanent,  so  sure  is  it  that  only  where  the  same 
instincts  are  regnant  will  the  people  who  manage 
the  affairs  of  state  continue  to  care  much  about 
universal  education. 

Moreover  it  has  been  well  said  that:  "  It 
is  the  Christian  school  in  England,  in  Amer- 
ica, in  China,  and  in  India  that  is  at  the  founda- 
tion of  Christian  institutions."  ^  But  on  that  fact 
I  need  not  dwell. 

The  first  explanation  of  this  close  alliance  be- 
tween Christianity  and  education  will  be  found  to 
lie  in  the  facts  connected  with  its  historical  origin. 
We  shall  find  reason  to  hold  that  this  faith  cannot 
be  maintained  in  its  purity  except  as  the  Bible  is 
read  widely  and  familiarly  among  those  who  be- 
lieve.   Now,  that  book  describes  the  history  of  the 


» F.  A.  Noble,  D.  D.,  in  L.  M.  C.     Vol.  II,  p.  204. 
88 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

revelation  of  God  and  the  redemption  of  man.  It 
is  upon  these  historical  facts  that  our  faith  is 
founded.  Make  them  dim  to  the  mind  of  the  in- 
dividual, and  his  conscience,  his  love,  his  fulness 
of  hope  are  made  correspondingly  dim  and  poor. 
He  must  have  those  words  abiding  in  him  which 
describe  the  fountains  of  divine  life  in  man.  He 
must  have  those  great  events  ever  present  to  his 
imagination,  and  subject  to  the  scrutiny  of  his 
intellect  which  opened  those  fountains.  Hence 
it  is,  that  wheresoever  this  gospel  is  preached 
throughout  the  whole  world,  there  the  hunger  is 
awakened  in  all  hearts  for  knowledge  of  those 
events,  for  the  possession  of  those  records,  at  first 
hand.  Men  and  women  who  believe  that  God  has 
done  great  things  for  them,  and  offered  great 
blessings  to  them,  yearn  to  have  personal  access  to 
that  which  they  are  told  is  His  own  Word  concern- 
ing these  divine  acts  and  these  sublime  promises. 
But  when  men  hitherto  Tinlearned  come  to  fa- 
miliarity with  the  Bible,  they  find  in  it  a  collec- 
tion of  books,  a  literature  possessing  very  great 
educational  value  and  influence.  There  is  no  mon- 
otony, but  rather  an  entrancing  variety  of  literary 
forms  into  which  its  stories  and  revelations  are 
cast.  Moreover  there  is  no  narrowness  in  the 
range  of  its  influence.  Every  kind  of  human  in- 
stinct has  its  representation  here,  and  nearly 
every  phase  of  human  character  and  activity  re- 
ceives some  description  in  connection  with  some 
portion  or  another  of  this  history  of  revelation. 
Love  and  war,  religious  festival  and  regal  splendor, 

89 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

the  woe  of  doubt  and  unbehef,  the  joy  of  faith  and 
divine  fellowship,  the  temporary  tragedy  of  right- 
eousness and  the  final  overthrow  of  the  world's 
incalculable  evil,  are  all  depicted  here,  often  with 
great  dramatic  force  and  passion.  All  the  elements 
of  human  nature,  its  appetites  and  affections, 
struggles  and  toils,  sorrows  and  triumphs,  com- 
bine to  form  the  rich  harmonies  which  are  heard 
by  him  who  comes  to  these  pages  with  the  sim- 
plicity of  faith  and  the  aspirations  of  love. 

And  yet  again  this  book  gives  a  wider  view  of 
the  world  to  the  poor  heathen  who  begins  to  read 
it  as  God's  word  to  him.  There  is  an  outlook  up- 
on all  nations  suggested,  if  not  clearly  defined,  by 
the  earlier  part  of  Genesis, — an  outlook  which  may 
seem  at  a  later  stage  of  the  history  almost  wholly 
lost,  but  which  rises  again  like  the  sun  in  his 
morning  splendor  when  Christ  has  ascended  and 
His  disciples  contemplate  a  redeemed  world,  which 
"  God  so  loved."  It  fs  not  easy  to  estimate  the 
influence  which  this  book  in  virtue  of  these  char- 
acteristics has  exerted  upon  the  race.  Whole  re- 
gions have  been  awakened  to  the  beginning  of  the 
intellectual  life  by  this  means.  Vast  hosts  of  hu- 
mankind have  been  thus  liberalized  and  ennobled  by 
these  wider  conceptions,  by  these  feelings  of  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  fortunes  of  a  people  with 
whom  otherwise  they  could  have  had  no  commu- 
nity of  sentiment,  and  above  all  by  that  marvelous 
consciousness  of  having  been  received  into  the 
glorious  brotherhood  of  mankind  which   this  book 

90 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

confers  upon  the  poorest  citizen  or  the  meanest 
tribe  in  the  world. 

But  there  is  another  point  of  view.  The  Chris- 
tian faith  not  only  rests  on  a  history,  it  also  im- 
plies or  yields  a  philosophy.  Jesus  said,  "  I  am 
the  truth";  and  that  may  be  taken  to  mean,  at 
least  that  His  teaching  and  the  faith  of  His  dis- 
ciples are  founded  upon  ultimate  facts.  Every 
religion  does,  more  or  less  directly  and  intelligent- 
ly, lead  the  mind  to  form  conceptions  regarding 
the  relations  of  God  and  man,  the  origin  and  des- 
tiny of  the  world,  etc.  Concerning  these  ultimate 
problems  the  mind  of  man  possesses  an  insatiable 
curiosity.  Missionaries  tell  us  of  the  eagerness 
with  which  those  who  first  begin  to  read  the  Bible 
listen  to  its  exposition,  and  fasten  upon  its  teach- 
ings about  creation  and  providence.  The  Chris- 
tian faith  since  it  contains  affirmations  concern- 
ing God  and  man  and  the  world,  and  their  mutual 
relations,  leads  the  mind  right  into  the  midst  of 
the    hardest    problems    which  it   can   encounter. 

These  affirmations,  when  men  begin  to  reason 
about  them,  are  seen  to  constitute  or  suggest  a 
philosophy.  The  early  centuries  of  church  histo- 
ry show  us  the  effect  of  thus  presenting  the  Chris- 
tian religion,  as  containing  or  implying  certain 
great  doctrines  concerning  the  ultimate  nature  of 
things,  to  peoples  that  had  for  centuries  discussed 
philosophy.  What  enthusiasm  of  thought!  What 
wide=spread  absorption  in  abstruse  problems! 
What  eagerness  in  the  defense  of  the  most  intricate 

91 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

theses!  And  what  intensity  of  feeling  about  the 
effect  which  this  or  that  theory  of  God  or  man 
would  produce  upon  the  substance  of  Christian 
faith  and  experience!  The  same  awakening  which 
took  place  in  and  through  the  early  Christian  Church 
in  southern  Europe,  northern  Africa,  and  wes- 
tern Asia,  which  gained  further  and  deeper  exten- 
sion at  the  Reformation  in  northern  Europe,  has 
been  spreading  through  all  the  world  during  this 
century.  The  missionary  Societies  are  literally  the 
greatest  educational  institutions  in  the  world,  if 
by  greatness  we  understand  not  the  mere  numbers 
who  attend  their  schools,  though  these  are  very 
great,  but  the  influence  which  they  exert  in 
awakening  the  minds  of  all  races  to  the  highest 
problems  and  efforts  of  the  intellect,  and  the  signif- 
icance of  their  work  for  the  future  development 
of  wide  and  densely  populated  regions  of  the  earth. 
It  has  been  said  by  one  of  themselves  that  mission- 
aries, "  have  probably  devoted  more  time  to  educa- 
tional work,  in  one  form  or  another,  than  to  all 
these  others  combined,"  and  he  refers  to  preach- 
ing, translating,  overseeing,  and  so  forth. 

Let  us  trace  the  stages  through  which  this 
educational  work  passes  in  a  savage  land,  say  in 
the  South  Seas  or  in  Africa.  The  missionary 
as  soon  as  he  has  got  a  few  pages  of  the  New 
Testament,  with  the  alphabet,  printed,  finds  one 
or  more  persons  who  are  willing  to  learn  to  read. 
They  take  delight  in  it.  Their  delight  is  con- 
tagious, for  they  immediately  begin  to  communi- 
cate to  others  what  they  have  attained.   As  soon  as 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

possible  the  missionary  adds  to  the  reading  of  the 
New  Testament  the  elements  of  writing  and  arith- 
metic.    New  enthusiasm  is   awakened.     Old   and 
young  are  eager  to  be  taught.     By  this  time  some 
have  learned  enough  to  be  recognized  as  assistant 
teachers  and  they  are  appointed  to  class  work.    As 
neighboring  towns  and  villages  demand  teaching, 
suitable  young  men,  if  possible  Christian  men,  are 
sent  to  open  schools  in  new  fields.     This  imposes 
new  duties  upon  the  missionary^     He  must  now 
oversee  the  teachers  in  their  various  fields  and  he 
must  institute   special   advanced   classes  for    the 
training  of  future  teachers  and  evangelists.     This 
means   the  preparation   of  more  text  books,   the 
translation  of  more  books  of  geography  and  his- 
tory, of  practical  religion  and  Bible   instruction. 
He  is'  now  sowing  the  seed  of  a  college  and  theolog- 
ical seminary.      The  minds  of  the  erstwhile  savage 
people,  whose  sole  thought  was  of  hunting  or  fish- 
ing or  fighting  or  gardening,  of  sleeping  and   eat- 
ing and  quarreling,  are  opened  to  the  wider  world 
and  its  interests.     In  the  meantime  commerce  has 
increased   with    European  and  American  traders, 
government  by  the  chief  or  king  has  become  more 
complex,  the  people  have  in  fact  ceased   to  be  a 
group  of   gregarious  animals  and  have  taken  an 
intelligent  place  in  the  family  of  mankind  where 
their  own  influence  is  definite  and  palpable. 

The  results  of  the  process  which  I  have  sketched 
are  visible  in  the  millions  of  people  who  now  have 
the  privilege  of  education,  where  fifty  or  sixty  years 
ago  there  was  no  such  thing  as  a  book.   The  South 

93 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Sea  Islands  are  well-nigh  thoroughly  covered  with 
day  schools.  Madagascar  had,  before  its  occupa- 
tion by  the  French,  about  one  thousand  schools  and 
one  hundred  thousand  pupils.  At  Antananarivo 
the  college  for  educating  teachers  and  the  semi- 
nary for  educating  a  native  ministry  were  year  by 
year  increasing  in  efficiency  and  in  the  thorough- 
ness of  the  intellectual  training  which  they  gave. 
In  Africa  whether  we  look  at  the  missions  in  the 
North,  South,  East  or  West,  we  find  the  same 
phenomenon.  All  the  missionaries  of  all  societies 
in  all  lands  are  educators.  They  are  doing  that 
work  whose  importance  for  the  future  history  of 
the  race  simply  cannot  be  estimated.  No  other 
institution  has  been  doing  it  in  these  savage  lands, 
until,  the  foundations  having  been  laid  by  the  mis- 
sionaries, the  state  at  some  stage  in  the  progress 
of  civilization  steps  in  and  becomes  responsible 
for  it. 

But  let  us  turn  to  lands  where  before  the  mis- 
sionary arrived  some  kind  and  degree  of  education 
was  already  enjoyed  by  the  people.  For  example, 
look  at  the  work  of  the  American  missionaries  in 
the  Ottoman  Empire.  When  these  men  and 
women  began  work  in  this  region  they  found,  in- 
deed, that  there  were  some  schools  in  which  Moham- 
medans received  a  mere  smattering  of  an  education 
and  some  schools  in  which  Gregorian  priests  were 
trained.  But  real  education,  there  was  none.  The 
brave  missionaries  set  themselves  to  supply  the 
lack.  They  established  not  only  day  schools 
for  children,  but  also  advanced  schools  which  grew 

94 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

into  noble  and  high-class  institutions.  Robert 
College  at  Constantinople,  the  colleges  at  Beirut 
and  Harpoot  and  elsewhere  are  vigorous  and  strong 
centers  of  rational  education.  This  kind  of  work 
has  been  indeed  bitterly  opposed  by  those  who 
take  a  narrow  view  of  the  missionary's  work  and  his 
relation  to  the  people  among  whom  he  lives.  Pres- 
ident Washburn  of  Robert  College  has  said,  "  The 
attacks  made  upon  this  kind  of  work,  although 
not  altogether  without  excuse,  were  undoubtedly  a 
mistake  which  put  back  the  missionary  work  of 
the  East  a  quarter  of  a  century.  The  results  of 
this  interesting  and  noble  work  is  that  both  Mos- 
lems and  Catholics  have  been  aroused  throughout 
the  Empire.  Whereas  in  that  Empire  in  1829 
there  was  not  one  school  for  girls,  to=day  there  is 
hardly  a  town  in  which  girls  may  not  learn  to 
read."  After  the  American  schools  had  been  in 
operation  for  forty  years  the  Turkish  Government 
did  in  1869  officially  promulgate  school  laws  and 
instituted  a  scheme  of  governmental  education. 
In  connection  with  this  field  of  labor  it  has  been 
said :  "  It  would  take  a  long  list  to  exhaust  the  relig- 
ious, literary  and  scientific  contributions  to  the 
Arabic  language  from  the  missionaries  of  Syria. 
They  include  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  and 
the  stereotyping  of  the  same  in  numerous  styles; 
the  preparation  of  a  Sc^'ipture  guide,  commenta- 
ries, a  concordance,  and  a  complete  hymn  and  tune 
book;  text=books  in  history,  algebra,  geometry, 
trigonometry,  logarithms,  astronomy,  meteorology, 
botany,     zoology,    physics,    chemistry,     anatomy, 

95 


Cnnstianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

physiology,  hygiene,  materia  medica,  practice  of 
physic,  surgery,  and  a  periodical  literature  which 
has  proved  the  stimulus  to  a  very  extensive  native 
journalism.  The  Protestant  converts  of  the  mis- 
sion, educated  by  the  missionaries,  have  written 
elaborate  works  on  history,  poetry,  grammar,  arith- 
metic, natural  science,  and  the  standard  dictionary 
of  the  language,  and  a  cyclopsedia  which  will  make 
a  library  by  itself,  consisting  of  about  twenty  vol- 
umes of  from  six  hundred  to  eight  hundred  pages 
each." ' 

Now,  in  all  these  lands  the  problem  of  educa- 
tion has  been  comparatively  simple.  The  path  of 
the  missionary  has  appeared  plain  and  straight 
and  inevitable.  He  could  not  be  a  missionary 
without  becoming  a  teacher.  But  there  are  coun- 
tries where  the  relation  of  the  missionary  to  edu- 
cation is  both  intricate  and  perplexing.  In  India 
above  all  other  countries  the  difficulties  have  been 
immense.  True,  in  many  parts  of  that  great 
region  the  missionary  finds  himself  among  peo- 
ples as  simple,  as  ignorant,  as  destitute  of  the 
opportunities  of  education  as  the  inhabitants  of 
Madagascar.  Here  the  work  of  founding  schools 
and  training  teachers  goes  on  in  the  most  obvious 
and  unembarrassing  manner.  The  real  problem  is 
connected  with  the  attempt  to  evangelize  the  higher 
castes.  They  would  enter  certain  schools  which 
the  government  had  founded  for  the  purpose  of 
fitting  them  to  use  their  own  language  in  the  trans- 
action of  business  on  behalf  of  the  government. 

^  Cf.  Dr.  Jessup,  in  "  Missions  at  Home  and  Abroad,"  p.  p.  258, 9. 
96 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

At  last  the  government  even  went  to  the  length 
of  providing  teachers  at  Calcutta  to  give  instruc- 
tion in  the  vernacular,  the  non^literary  and  popular 
languages.  But  the  children  of  these  castes  were 
found  by  early  missionaries  practically  inaccessible. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  great  Scottish  mis- 
sionary, Alexander  Duff,  to  introduce  that  sys- 
tem which  has  done  more  than  anything  else  to 
develop  the  Indian  mind  and  enabled  it  to  grasp 
western  ideas.  While  yet  a  young  man  and  a 
comparative  stranger  in  Calcutta  he  decided  that 
the  right  thing  to  do  was  to  teach  the  higher  caste 
Indians  through  the  English  language.  His  the- 
ory was  scouted  as  an  impossible  dream.  But  he 
managed  to  put  it  into  practice,  gathered  a  num- 
ber of  youths  who  had  at  the  government  schools 
been  emancipated  from  their  native  superstitions 
and  fears,  and  taught  them  in  English.  Of  course, 
for  this  purpose  the  native  languages  had  to  be 
used.  Their  progress  was  so  rapid  as  to  encourage 
Mr.  Duff  himself.  At  the  end  of  a  year  he  invited 
X:)rominent  government  officers  to  visit  his  school. 
He  conducted  a  public  examination  and  the  results 
were  so  amazing  that  henceforth  his  plan  had  the 
support  of  the  British  rulers  of  India.  Most  grat- 
ifying of  all  to  Mr.  Duff  was  the  fact  that  some  of 
the  most  brilliant  of  his  earliest  pupils  became 
Christians  and  exercised  great  influence  afterward 
in  behalf  of  the  Gospel. 

Thus  was  begun  that  which  is  known  to=day 
as  the  Christian  College  system  in  India.  To 
the  mind  of  its  founder.  Dr.  Duff,  it  seemed  to 

97 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

be  the  case  that  the  use  of  the  English  language 
and  the  power  to  read  English  literature  would 
prepare  the  minds  of  the  Indian  youth  very 
rapidly  to  grasp  Christian  truth.  He  had 
found  that  it  was  extremely  difficult  to  express 
the  doctrines  of  this  religion  in  native  terms. 
Their  languages  had  been  molded  by  certain  theo- 
ries, religious  and  philosophical,  which  were  dis- 
tinctly anti^Christian.  Hence  it  could  only  be 
with  the  greatest  difficulty,  by  coining  words,  or 
using  what  they  had  with  explanations  which  mod- 
ified their  current  meanings,  that  adequate  in- 
struction could  be  carried  on.  Now  the  English 
language  has  been  molded  by  the  Christian  relig- 
ion. Its  words  have  been  fitted  by  long  centuries 
of  history  to  the  nicest  discriminations  in  Chris- 
tian theology  and  philosophy.  If  only,  then,  the 
Indian  youths  could  be  taught  to  read  the  English 
language  fluently  and  to  become  familiar  with  its 
modes  of  expression,  that  would  at  once  lift  them 
into  the  intellectual  atmosphere  where  the  Gospel 
has  lived  and  breathed  freely  for  ages.  Of  course. 
Dr.  Duff  made  the  reading  of  the  Bible  a  promi- 
nent feature  of  his  school  work  and  its  teachings 
were  fully  explained.  That  has  remained  to  this 
day  an  essential  part  of  the  work  of  these  institu- 
tions.    It  is  indeed  their  raison  d^dre. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  within  the  Christian 
Church  at  home,  both  in  England  and  America, 
there  has  been  considerable  criticism  of  this 
kind  of  work.  It  has  been  urged  that  this  is 
not     the     evangelism    for    which    people     have 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

subscribed    their    money   to    the  great  societies, 
that  the  labor  and  expenditure   are  not  justified 
by     the     number     of    conversions     of    educated 
young    men     to     faith     in     Jesus     Christ.       On 
the  other  hand  it  is  urged  that  most  valuable  con- 
versions have  taken  place,  that  the  young  men  who 
go  out  of  the  colleges,  knowing  the  Bible  as  they 
do  and  mixing  with  the  Christian  people  as  they 
do,  not  only  cannot  longer  hold  their  own  religion, 
but  cannot  entertain  the  hatred  for  Christianity 
which  they  otherwise  would  have  done.     None  in 
India  are  so  dangerous  to  the  welfare  of  the  whole 
people  as  the  youths  who  have  grown  up  in  gov- 
ernment colleges  in  infidelity  and  who  have  caught 
the  tricks  of  phrase  and  thought  of  the  latest  and 
most  blatant  opponents  of  religious  faith  in  Eu- 
rope and  America.     The  most  thoughtful  Indians, 
even  when  they  are  not  avowed  Christians,  dread 
this  drift  into  infidelity.     They  see  its  immense 
dangers,  not  only  to  the  individual  youths  who  so 
drift,  but  to  the  whole  structure  of  society  against 
which   they    turn.      These   'emancipated'    young 
men  have  no  substitute  of  a  positive  kind  to  offer 
for  the  customs  and  the  faiths  of  their  ancestors. 
They  are  mere  iconoclasts,  not  builders  of  a  new 
and  fairer  temple  for  humanity.     The  educated  and 
infidel  young  man  is  felt  by  all  who  regard  him 
thoughtfully  in  India,  whether  they  are  heathen 
or  Christian,  to  be  a  social  pest. 

One  of  the  ablest  missionaries  in  India  said 
at  the  London  Conference  in  1888:  "While  I 
"am   ready   to  admit  that  the  spread  of  western 

99 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

"  knowledge  is  powerful  in  pulling  down  old  sys- 
"  terns  and  uprooting  grotesque  forms  of  belief, 
"  the  fibers  of  which  are  subtly  interlaced  with 
"  the  religious  and  social  life  of  the  vast  commu- 
"  nities  dwelling  in  India,  it  is  at  the  same  time 
"  opening  the  floodgates  of  infidelity,  non-relig- 
"  ion,  ay,  and  immorality  too.  For  where  a  man's 
"  principles  are  not  kept  in  check  by  any  acknowl- 
"  edgment  of  moral  responsibility,  where  the  man 
"  is  not  awed  and  restrained  by  any  fear  of  coming 
"  retribution,  immorality  must  almost  of  necessity 
"  follow."  The  same  speaker  bore  witness  concern- 
ing the  Christian  Colleges:  "It  is  a  mistake  to 
suppose  that  because  the  Bible  is  prominently 
taught  in  the  mission  school  it  is  in  disfavor.  The 
very  opposite  opinion  and  feeling  obtain.  There 
is  no  institution  throughout  the  length  and  breadth 
of  India  that  has  drawn  to  it  half  the  popularity 
of  the  Christian  College  in  Madras;  and,  as  far  as 
academic  distinction  and  universal  success  are 
concerned,  it  outstrips  every  other.  The  govern- 
ment institutions  are  simply  nowhere.  And  yet 
in  the  Christian  College  the  Bible  is  prominently 
taught."  Mr.  Burgess  then  added  this  significant 
evidence  from  heathen  sources  of  the  value  of  the 
Gospel  in  relation  to  education  in  India:  "I  knew 
a  member  of  the  Madras  legislative  council  years 
ago  who  daily  sent  his  son  in  a  carriage  and  pair 
a  mile  and  a  half  further  than  the  government  in- 
stitution to  a  place  where  all  religion  was  not  ig- 
nored. I  know  a  Mohammedan  nobleman  in 
Hyderabad  at  the  present   time.     He  was  nursed 

100 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

in  the  lap  of  luxury;  he  is  learned  in  everything 
that  Spencer  has  written;  but  yet  the  other  day, 
when  his  patronage  was  asked  for  a  certain  educa- 
tional appointment  by  an  avowed  atheist,  he  said, 
'Well,  if  I  must  choose,  give  me  the  Christian 
with  his  Bible,  but  not  the  atheist  in  India.'  "  ' 

It  comes  to  this,  then,  that  in  India  men  of  all 
kinds  recognize  the  extraordinary  function  which 
the  Christian  schools  of  every  grade  are  exercising 
upon  the  social  development  of  the  people.  For 
what  is  true  of  these  Christian  colleges,  that  they 
alone  seem  to  give  stability  of  character  and  dig- 
nity of  ideals  to  large  masses  of  the  educated 
youth  of  India,  must  be  true  also  of  the  thousands 
of  Christian  schools  througliout  the  whole  country. 
They  are  all  at  the  very  center  and  contain  in 
themselves  the  secret  and  source  of  the  progress  of 
man  throughout  these  teeming  populations.  More- 
over, they  manifest  their  impulsive  power  in  virtue 
not  of  that  secular  instruction  which  they  give  in 
common  with  secular  schools,  but  in  virtue  of  the 
religious  element  which  is  introduced  by  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Bible  into  the  life  of  these  institutions. 
It  is  that  which  is  proving  itself  the  preserving 
and  purifying  salt  and  light  in  the  midst  of  a 
society  which,  already  corrupt  enough,  is  in  dan- 
ger of  passing  downwards  into  deeper  darkness 
still. 

In  one  direction  the  missionary  movement  has 


1  Rev.   William  Burgess,  in  L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I.,  pp.  206,  207. 
Cf.  Rev.  Wm.  Miller,  Ibid,  Vol.  II,  234-6. 
101 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

stimulated  a  form  of  education  which  appeals  to 
our  sense  of  humanity  in  a  peculiar  manner.  I 
refer  to  the  work  of  medical  education.  Most  mis- 
sionaries have  been  able  to  do  something  towards 
the  relief  of  suffering  and  disease.  Even  when 
they  attempted  nothing  difficult  or  intricate  their 
simple  remedies  have  proved  of  great  value.  And 
in  some  instances  men  who  had  little  medical 
training  have  done  admirable  work  in  this  direc- 
tion. But,  of  course,  it  is  only  since  the  medical 
missionary  became  thoroughly  established  as  a 
necessary  element  in  the  equipment  of  the  more 
important  missions,  that  this  kind  of  work  has  ex- 
ercised a  great  educational  impulse.  The  medical 
missionary  aims  at  opening  a  dispensary  and  erect- 
ing a  hospital  as  soon  as  possible.  For  this  he 
needs  assistants  and  is  compelled  at  once  to  begin 
the  training  of  natives  whether  they  be  converts  or 
not.  Sooner  or  later  it  becomes  recognized  that 
he  is  fitting  men  to  go  out  and  become  practition- 
ers in  the  simpler  kinds  of  medical  work.  It  is  a 
fact  that  in  all  parts  of  the  world  these  physician- 
evangelists  are  the  pioneers  of  medicine.  In  India 
they  have  done  their  own  share  of  medical  educa- 
tion at  the  more  im^^ortant  of  their  mission  hos- 
pitals. In  Turkey  the  medical  missionaries  found 
that  there  were  hardly  any  doctors  throughout  the 
empire,  and  these  few  were  worthless.  Now  the 
number  of  native  doctors  is  very  great  and  is  con- 
stantly increasing.  The  awakening  of  China  to 
the  value  of  occidental  experience  in  medicine  was 
effected  by  a  young  medical  missionary  from  Eng- 

102 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

land.  In  the  life  of  Dr.  J.  Kenneth  Mackenzie/ 
the  interesting  story  is  told.  His  triumph  in  this 
direction  begins  with  his  admission  to  the  bedside 
of  the  dying  wife  of  that  great  Chinese  statesman, 
Li  Hung  Chang.  Natural  traditions  and  preju- 
dices were  torn  down  by  tHe  threatened  loss  of 
that  patient's  life.  She  was  restored.  Li  Hung 
Chang  was  thereafter  led  to  build  and  equip  a  hos- 
pital under  Dr.  Mackenzie's  care,  and  there  the 
first  Chinese  medical  students  were  trained.  They 
were  received  with  coldness  and  neglect  when  they 
went  out  to  practice.  But  afterwards  the  govern- 
ment was  aroused  to  the  necessity  of  strenuous 
action  and  it  organized  a  system  of  medical  educa- 
tion on  a  larger  scale.  Even  in  Japan,  where  we 
might  have  expected  that  the  determination  to 
learn  from  the  western  world  would  have  led  to  the 
opening  of  schools  of  medicine,  the  same  phenom- 
enon presents  itself.  Again  it  was  a  medical  mis- 
sionary who  seems  to  have  given  the  initial  im- 
pulse. Dr.  J.  C.  Berry  made  it  a  part  of  his  work 
to  convene  the  native  doctors  and  give  tliem  what 
instructions  were  possible  regarding  more  rational 
methods  in  the  treatment  of  disease  than  their 
poor  traditions  had  made  possible.  "  He  soon 
had,"  we  are  told,  "  a  band  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  native  doctors  with  him."  Professional 
enthusiasm  thus  created  led  to  a  great  desire  for 
better  and  fuller  training;  students  were  sent  to 
Europe  and  America  to  learn  medicine  in  the  best 


7  John  Kenneth  Mackenzie,  by  Mrs.  Bryson.     Revell  &  Co. 
103 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

schools  and  return  as  the  instructors  and  leaders 
of  their  fellow  countrymen. 

The  aim  of  this  chapter  has  not  been  to  mini- 
mize any  agency  of  a  non^christian  or  a  non^relig- 
ious  nature  which  is  promoting  education  in  the 
world.  It  is  a  fact  that  education  has  become  or 
is  becoming,  in  many  lands  hitherto  known  as 
heathen,  a  function  of  the  state,  and  it  is  of  im- 
measurable significance.  It  would  be  foolish,  for 
example,  to  compare  the  number  of  pupils  in  the 
mission  schools  of  India  with  the  number  in  the 
government  schools.  My  argument  is  complete  if 
it  can  be  taken  as  proved  that  in  practically  all 
lands  where  the  idea  of  popular  education  is  to=day 
taking  root,  the  missionary  enterprise  has  had 
much  or  everything  to  do  with  the  sowing  of  the 
seed.  Even  in  India  this  has  been  the  case.  For 
it  does  not  appear  that  the  government  of  India 
had  thought  of  attempting  the  education  of  any 
native  until  it  wished  to  have  clerks  and  other 
officials  for  its  own  service.  The  establishment  of 
the  present  magnificent  and  ever  extending  system 
of  education  was  due  to  the  Christian  enthusiasm 
of  men  who  went  out  from  England  to  be  rulers  of 
a  nobler  type  than  their  predecessors  had  been. 
They  cooperated  with  and  were  much  influenced 
by  great  missionaries,  such  as  Carey  and  Duff  and 
Wilson.  It  was  out  of  that  religious  atmosphere 
that,  in  spite  of  the  opposition  of  the  older  class 
of  officials,  (those  representatives  of  the  non=relig- 
ious  civilized  man,)  the  education  of  India  arose. 

In  China,  in  Japan,   in   Madagascar  the  same 

101 


The  Missionary  and  Education 

thing  has  happened.  When  each  of  these  lands 
was  unsealed  and  western  life  poared  in,  the  first 
to  land,  the  first  to  settle,  the  first  to  touch  the 
deeper  sides  of  native  life,  the  first  to  begin  educa- 
tion were  the  men  and  women  whom  we  know  as 
missionaries  of  Christ.  Now  this  is  a  fact  of  im- 
mense importance  for  every  student  who  would 
fain  see  the  inner  meaning  of  the  progress  of  man. 
Whatever  that  progress  may  be  or  not  be,  and  we 
may  have  to  discuss  that,  at  any  rate  it  cannot  ex- 
clude education.  These  nations  of  heathendom 
cannot  be  brought  into  the  family  of  mankind 
except  as  they  share  in  the  education  of  the  high- 
est races.  And  here  we  have  seen  that  the  pio- 
neers of  education  have  been  the  men  and  women 
who  went  out  as  preachers  of  Christ,  as  the  instru- 
ments of  the  highest  and  purest  religious  force  in 
history. 

106 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE     MISSIONARY     AND     SELF-SACRI- 
FICE—THE    FUNCTION     OF 
MARTYRDOM. 

That  which  most  impressed  the  churches  in  the 
early  part  of  this  century  was  the  heroism  and 
self=sacrifice  of  the  Christian  missionary.  When 
Carey  or  Judson  went  out  to  the  East  from  their 
home  lands  with  a  mere  pittance  of  money  at  their 
disposal,  with  no  security  as  to  salary,  they  mani- 
fested a  courage  that  amazed  all.  When  they  cast 
themselves  against  the  enormous  difficulties  of  the 
work  of  evangelization,  their  dauntless  faith  and 
determination  could  not  but  evoke  both  amazement 
and  admiration.  No  one  had  preceded  them  upon 
whose  experience  they  could  draw.  They  had  to 
fight  their  way  through  all  prejudices,  through  the 
obstacles  created  both  by  Europeans  and  natives. 
They  had  to  discover  the  best  ways  of  approaching 
the  native  mind  and  character,  to  ponder  and  to 
decide  how  best  to  deal  alike  with  the  heathen, 
who  were  willing  to  listen  to  them,  and  the  con- 
verts who  were  willing  to  confess  Jesus  Christ. 
And  far  on  into  the  century  a  considerable  part  of 
the  interest  in  foreign  missions  was  created  or  in- 
creased by  the  feeling  of  admiration  which  all  felt 
for  those  who  left  home  and  comfort  to  live  among 

lOG 


The  Missionary  and  Self=sacrifice 

cannibals  in  the  South  Seas  or  to  pass  into  the 
dark  parts  of  Africa.  They  all  possessed  the  de- 
votion of  spirit,  expressed  in  the  prayer  of  one 
living  missionary,  who  in  his  youth  knelt  down 
and  prayed  that  God  would  send  him  into  the 
darkest  place  on  the  earth.  When  such  men  left 
home  in  those  years,  it  was  for  good.  The  idea  of 
a  regular  furlough  was  not  in  their  minds;  the  im- 
mense dangers  by  sea  and  land,  from  human  sav- 
ages and  savage  beasts,  were  all  in  their  minds. 
And  many  a  young  man  or  woman,  in  saying  fare- 
well, said  it  as  those  do  who  go  out  to  face  the 
almost  certain  death  of  a  fierce  campaign.  In 
those  days,  as  I  have  said,  the  heroism  and  self-sac- 
rifice were  so  obvious  and  great  that  no  one  ques- 
tioned their  supreme  significance. 

But  in  our  day  one  hears  a  considerable  amount 
of  speech  somewhat  derogatory  of  this  self-sacri- 
fice. On  the  one  hand  good  and  earnest  mission- 
aries themselves  have  come  home  and  have  denied 
that  they  made  any  sacrifice.  They  have  said  that 
the  honor  and  the  joy  of  the  work  were  so  great 
as  to  obliterate  from  their  minds  the  feeling  that 
they  had  lost  or  sacrificed  anything  comparable 
with  these,  by  entering  the  missionary  career. 
And  a  good  many  people  who  have  no  heart 
themselves  to  follow  that  example  are  beginning 
to  echo  these  words  of  saintly  self=sacrifice,  and  to 
speak  as  if  it  were  the  bare  fact  that  the  mission- 
ary life  is  not  one  of  supreme  sacrifice.  Then  this 
matter  is  discussed  from  another  point  of  view, 
when  men  compare  the  life  of  the  missionary  with 

107 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

that  of  the  soldier,  the  trader,  the  traveler  or  the 
civil  servant.  All  these,  it  is  said,  leave  their  home- 
land; bid  farewell  to  their  dear  ones;  go  forth  to 
dangers  of  sea  and  land;  live  among  savage  and 
degraded  peoples;  part  with  their  children, 
sending  them  home  for  education;  encounter  the 
inconveniences,  the  sicknesses  and  the  sorrows 
incidental  to  residence  in  lands  like  those.  What 
does  the  missionary  do  more  than  these,  it  is 
asked?  Why  not  speak  of  their  self=sacrifice,  and 
hail  it  with  gratitude? 

The  result  of  movements  of  feeling  and  thought 
like  this  is,  that  in  various  directions  it  comes  to 
be  taken  for  granted,  that  the  missionary  career 
should  not  now  be  encircled  with  the  halo  of  the 
martyr,  nor  be  renowned  for  heroic  qualities  of 
unique  or  surprising  degree.  On  this  whole  mat- 
ter the  following  observations  seem  to  contain 
some  value.  In  the  first  lolace,  no  one  would  care 
to  depreciate  the  heroism  involved  in  many  of  the 
secular  careers  above  referred  to.  They  have 
manifested  a  certain  kind  of  bravery,  a  resourceful- 
ness and  even  self-control.  They  do  stand  for 
something  in  the  progress  of  man;  they  have  exerted, 
merely  as  examples  of  heroism,  a  true  influence 
upon  the  life  of  the  race.  The  whole  world  is  the 
better  for  manifestations  of  daring,  of  devotion  to 
a  purpose  and  skill  in  its  pursuit,  which  these 
various  classes  of  men  have  given  to  us  all. 

That  which  we  wish  to  ask  is  not,  at  first,  whether 
the  courage  of  the  missionary  or  his  self-sacrifice 
has  been  equal  to  that  of  any  other  class  of  men, 

108 


The  Missionary  and  Self=sacrifice 

but  whether  a  difference  of  motive  does  not  im- 
part a  difference  of  quality  to  self==sacrifice  in  such 
careers.  Does  the  trader,  who  sails  to  the  South 
Seas  to  stay  there  for  ten  years,  buying  and  selling 
and  making  gain,  manifest  self-sacrifice  in  the 
same  way  as  the  missionary,  who  goes  to  the  same 
islands  and  settles  down  also  for  ten  years  to  be 
the  teacher  and  savior  of  the  natives  ?  Do  we  not 
all  feel  and  see  that  the  difference  of  aim  has  im- 
parted a  difference  of  quality  to  the  sacrifice  of 
self  involved  in  the  courage  of  these  two  men 
respectively?  Of  course  it  does.  The  missionary 
has  not  only  given  himself  up  once  for  all  to  the 
service  of  Jesus  Christ,  —  the  other  may  have  done 
that.  He  has  further  resolved  to  cut  himself  off 
from  all  desire  for  wealth  or  fame  or  earthly  pro- 
motion and  to  give  himself  in  that  distant  island, 
body  and  heart  and  mind,  wholly  and  without  re- 
serve to  the  interests  of  those  degraded  people. 
It  is  his  life,  himself,  that  he  is  giving  to  them. 
Not  so  the  trader.  He  may  be  a  good  man,  quite 
up  to  the  ordinary  standards  of  Christian  goodness; 
he  may  even  take  a  benevolent  interest  in  the 
work  of  the  missionary.  But  his  leaving  of  the 
homeland,  though  it  cost  tears  and  pangs,  has 
not  gone  so  to  the  depths  of  his  nature  because  it 
did  not  of  itself  involve  that  further  sacrifice  of 
self  which  the  missionary  has  made.  So  it  is 
with  the  traveler  or  the  soldier  or  the  civil  servant. 
These  men  avowedly  seek  glory  and  honor  for 
themselves,  for  their  work;  and  the  sacrifice  of 
home  has  been  made,  not  with  a  view  to  the  deep- 

109 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

er  sacrifice  of  self  in  those  lands,  but  to  the  gain- 
ing of  a  higher  earthly  self,  to  the  attainment  of 
a  position  whose  glory  shall  be  reflected  far  and 
near,  as  the  glory  of  this  man  or  that  man. 

But  now  I  believe  that  there  is  also  a  great  differ- 
ence in  degree  as  well  as  in  quality  between  the 
self-sacrifice  of  these  various  classes  of  men  and 
that  of  the  missionary;  there  is  an  immeasurable 
gulf  separating  the  whole  attitude  of  mind  and 
heart  in  which  the  missionary  and  these  others 
stand  towards  the  natives  amongst  whom  they  live. 
The  missionary  is  face  to  face  with  these  natives, 
with  the  burden  of  their  individual  souls  upon 
him.  It  is  his  task  to  open  his  thought  and  feel- 
ing to  all  the  impressions  of  horror  and  sadness 
and  despair,  which  his  contact  with  idolatry  and 
immorality  and  ignorance  and  deadness  of  heart 
make  upon  him.  When  he  views  these  native 
customs,  it  is  not  as  the  ethnologist  purely  and 
simply,  not  as  the  mere  observer  and  recorder  of 
sociological  facts,  but  as  the  tender  soul  upon 
whom  each  and  all  of  these  facts  bring  grief.  He 
lives  a  life  of  peculiar  loneliness  as  a  rule.  He 
stands  face  to  face  with  degradation  and  darkness. 
He  sees  the  trader  succeeding  in  his  work  and  the 
traveler  marching  rapidly  to  glory  and  a  book  of 
many  editions,  and  he  can  sympathize  with  them, 
but  hardly  they  with  him.  Seldom  has  he  the  joy 
of  intercourse  with  a  human  heart  outside  his  own 
home,  which  can  understand  the  burden  of  souls 
which  he  bears.  Yet  more,  the  missionary  has  to 
identify  himself  so  completely  with  the  people  for 

110 


The  Missionary  and  Self=sacrifice 

whom  he  labors  that  he  comes  to  love  them  as  if 
he  were  one  of  them.  Few  missionaries  have  left  a 
field  where  they  have  labored  many  years  Vv^ithout 
the  deepest  pangs  of  regret.  Listen  to  a  missionary 
from  Madagascar,  or  from  India,  or  even  from  some 
humble  tribe  in  Africa,  speak  of  his  field  and  his 
people,  of  the  problems  lying  before  them,  of  their 
prospects  as  a  race,  of  the  triumphs  of  the-  G-ospel 
among  them,  and  you  will  always  feel  that  you  are 
looking  into  a  heart  ablaze  with  love  itself.  I 
know  of  no  love  in  the  world  so  like  that  of  Jesus, 
so  obviously  a  reflection  of  that  central  sun  of  love, 
the  Heart  of  the  Eternal,  as  this  love  of  the  mis- 
sionary of  the  19th  century  for  the  people  that  he 
is  winning  to  Christ,  It  must  be  obvious  that 
such  love  costs  what  cannot  be  measured,  as  all 
brooding,  parental,  redeeming  love  does. 

And  then  we  must  speak  not  only  of  lives  of 
sacrifice,  but  of  deaths.  Who  can  number  the 
missionaries  that  lie  dead  in  far  off  fields?  How 
many  of  these  died  in  early  youth  of  fevers  and 
pestilences?  Many  will,  no  doubt,  remember  Pro- 
fessor Henry  Drummond's  description  of  the  mis- 
sion station  at  Livingstonia  in  Central  Africa. 
There,  "  on  the  silver  sand  of  a  small  bay  stood 
the  small  row  of  trim  white  cottages.  A  neat  path 
through  a  small  garden  led  up  to  the  settlement, 
and  I  approached  the  largest  house  and  entered." 
He  passed  through  several,  "  And  so  on  to  the  next, 
and  the  next,  all  in  perfect  order,  and  all  empty. 
Then  a  native  approached  me  and  led  me  a  few 
yards  into  the  forest.    And  there  among  the  mimosa 

HI 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

trees,  under  a  huge  granite  mountain,  were  four  or 
five  graves.  These  were  the  missionaries."  ^  When 
Alexander  Mackay  bade  farewell  to  the  committee 
of  his  society,  before  leaving  with  some  other  young 
men  for  Central  Africa,  he  said,  "  Is  it  at  all  likely 
that  eight  Englishmen  should  start  for  Central  Af- 
rica and  all  be  alive  six  months  after?  One  of  us 
at  least — it  may  be  I — will  surely  fall  before  that. 
But  what  I  want  to  say  is  this:  when  the  news 
comes,  do  not  be  cast  down,  but  send  some  one 
else  immediately  to  take  the  vacant  place."  ^  In 
the  same  spirit  M.  Golaz,  a  young  French  mission- 
ary, when  dying  within  one  year  of  his  arrival  in 
Senegambia,  spoke  thus,  "  Do  not  be  discouraged, 
if  the  first  laborers  fall  in  the  field.  Their  graves 
will  mark  the  way  for  their  successors,  who  will 
march  past  them  with  great  strides."  ^ 

Many  missionaries  have  fallen  by  the  hand  of  the 
assassin.  No  doubt  among  the  other  classes  men- 
tioned above,  who  live  and  work  in  heathen  lands, 
multitudes  have  died,  and  many  have  been  slain. 
But  there  is  one  feature  connected  with  the  murder 
of  missionaries  which  we  do  not  find  manifested 
when  any  other  class  of  men  is  put  to  death.  It  is 
this,  that  no  missionary,  so  far  as  I  have  ever  heard, 
fights  for  his  life.     He  will  escape,  if  he  can;  he 


^  "Tropical  Africa,"  p. 41.  One  of  the  most  pathetic  scenes 
in  missionary  history  will  be  found  described  in  "  Ten  Years 
North  of  the  Orange  River,"  by  John  Mackenzie,  Chapter  X. 

2  "  Mackay  of  Uganda,"  p.  32. 

3  Vide,  «  The  Gospel»Mes6age,"  by  R.  N.  Cust,  LL.  D.,  pp. 
45-63, 

113 


The  Missionary  and  Self-sacrifice 

will  use  persuasion  and  all  other  straightforward 
and  legitimate  means  of  escape,  but  he  will  not  lift 
his  hand  to  slay  his  assailant.  It  is  not  to  their 
shame  that  the  wounds  of  many  dead  missionaries 
have  been  in  their  backs.  They  have  had  guns 
v/ith  them,  but  have  not  used  them  against  even 
the  most  malignant  foes.  They  have  followed  the 
example  of  Jesus  in  this  matter,  as  He  may  have 
intended  that  all  His  disciples  should  follow  it  to 
the  uttermost.  They  have  persistently  loved  their 
enemies,  and  done  good  to  those  that  cursed  them, 
and  prayed  for  those  that  despitefully  used  them, 
and  cried  not  for  vengeance  but  for  mercy  upon 
those  who  put  them  and  their  families  to  slaugh- 
ter. The  ordinary  soldier  or  trader  or  traveler 
does  not  believe  in  allowing  himself  to  be  put  to 
death  by  a  "  cursed  nigger "  without  resistance, 
and,  if  possible,  vengeance.  Even  Christian  men  of 
undoubtedly  high  character  have  not  scrupled  to 
slay  their  assailants,  although  they  knew  that  re- 
sistance was  of  no  avail.  For  example,  of  one  civil 
servant  in  India,  described  as  a  "  godly  judge  " 
and  "  a  brave  official,"  it  is  said  that  when  he  found 
himself,  in  the  time  of  the  Indian  mutiny,  sur- 
rounded by  Mohammedans  seeking  his  life:  "hav- 
ing read  the  comfortable  words  of  Scripture  and 
having  commended  himself  to  God,  he  brought  out 
all  the  arms  he  had  and  prepared  to  defend  his 
life.  .  .  .  Summoned  to  abjure  Christ  and  ac- 
cept Mohammed,  he  resolutely  refused.  As  the 
police  guard  (the  mutineers)  advanced,  he  shot 
fourteen  or  sixteen  of  these — the  accounts  vary — 

113 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

before  he  fell,  confessing  Christ."  "  Eobert  Tuck- 
er," Dr.  George  Smith  adds,  "  was  the  glory  of  the 
Bengal  civil  service,  and  he  was  not  alone  in  his 
heroism  or  his  confession."  ^ 

The  martyr  spirit  which  has  thus  been  man- 
ifested by  the  missionaries  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury has  been  communicated  to  the  converts  whom 
they  have  made.  It  is  impossible  to  realize  the 
amount  of  suffering  and  sacrifice  which  have  been 
incurred  by  those  who  have  confessed  Christ 
throughout  heathendom.  The  earliest  confessors 
have  almost  invariably  become  the  objects  of  rid- 
icule and  hostility  from  their  own  countrymen. 
In  some  parts  of  the  world  this  time  of  open  per- 
secution has,  indeed,  passed  rapidly  away.  In  the 
islands  of  the  Pacific,  where  the  idols  were  cast 
aside  over  and  over  again  by  a  public  tribal  reso- 
lution and  act,  the  penalties  involved  in  submit- 
ting to  baptism  have  not  been  prolonged  or  severe. 
And  yet  one  of  the  most  remarkable  facts  connect- 
ed with  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  those  islands 
has  been  the  heroism  with  which  the  converts,  as 
soon  as  they  gained  sufficient  education,  have  been 
willing  to  devote  their  lives  to  the  work  of  evan- 
gelization in  other  islands.  The  great  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  New  Guinea  during  the 
last  twenty  years  would  have  been  impossible 
without  the  assistance  of  native  evangelists  from 
other  islands  already  Christianized.  No  Europe- 
an  or  American  missionary  could   have   excelled 


1 "  Life  of  Dr.  Duff,"  Vol.  II,  p.  344. 


The  Missionary  and  Self=sacrifice 

some  of  these  in  the  courage  with  which  they 
have  faced  fever  and  assassination  far  from  their 
own  homes,  sometimes  in  utter  loneliness  amongst 
fierce  and  cannibal  tribes. 

The  difficulties  which  lie  before  every  man 
or  woman  in  India  who  would  confess  Christ 
are  now  thoroughly  known  to  us  all.  We  know 
how  the  caste  system  has  surrounded  with 
peculiar  horror  the  act  of  receiving  baptism; 
how  the  poor  youth  who  cannot  deny  his  love 
for  Jesus  Christ  is  treated  as  one  who  has 
degraded  himself  and  his  whole  family  in  the 
eyes  of  the  community.  He  must  tear  himself 
sometimes  from  the  clasp  of  a  mother's  arms,  whose 
pleadings  and  tears  have  been  applied  to  soften 
his  heart  and  whose  shrieks  of  bitterness  follow 
him  into  his  life  of  homelessness.  Such  men  have 
been  spat  upon  by  their  wives,  have  heard  their 
children  told  to  curse  them,  have  been  disinherited 
and  sent  out  poor  and  naked  and  bruised  into  the 
world.     Many  have  been  put  to  death. 

Where  men  of  promise  and  position  have  be- 
come Christians  as  in  the  case  of  Khama,  one  of 
the  leading  chiefs  of  South  Africa,  they  have  been 
compelled  to  face  persecution  after  another  fash- 
ion. The  story  of  this  confessor  is  now  well 
known.  For  refusing  to  marry  more  than  one  wife 
or  to  take  any  part  in  the  native  practices  of  witch- 
craft, to  which  as  heir  to  the  chieftainship  he  ought 
to  have  been  given,  this  man  and  his  brother  were 
openly  driven  from  the  town  and  attacked  with 
arms  by  their  heathen  and  dark^hearted  father. 

115 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

While  as  Christians  they  could  not  yield  to  his 
evil  will,  as  Christians  they  refused  to  lift  a  hand 
against  him,  except  in  self=^defense.  Entrenching 
themselves  with  the  Christian  party  of  the  tribe  in 
a  strong  position,  outside  the  town,  they  simply 
fought  when  attacked.  By  maintaining  an  atti- 
tude of  noble  patience,  of  quiet  dignity,  by  reveal- 
ing the  purity  of  his  motives,  the  tenderness  of 
heart  and  at  the  same  time  the  strong  will  of  a 
born  ruler,  this  man  at  last  himself  became  chief 
and  has  made  his  mark  in  the  history  of  the  de- 
velopment of  South  Africa.  Everywhere  on 
the  mission  field,  which  now  practically  means 
throughout  the  world,  the  same  old  martyr  spirit 
has  been  revealed  in  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  cases  as  that  of  which  we  read  with  bated 
breath  and  worshipful  awe  in  the  early  Church  or 
in  the  times  of  the  Reformation.  And  to-day  it  is 
proved  that  the  ancient  saying  of  the  brave  Latin 
father  is  true,  that  the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the 
seed  of  the  Church.  When  every  missionary  was 
driven  from  Madagascar  and  a  reckless  queen 
sought  to  exterminate  the  Gospel  by  slaying  two 
thousand  of  her  own  subjects,  she  really  only  in- 
creased the  numbers  of  Christian  believers.  In 
India  the  awful  mutiny  broke  out  and  was  directed 
towards  the  destruction  of  the  Christian  Churches; 
many  Christian  pastors  and  teachers  as  well  as 
missionaries  were  put  to  death.  The  chief  result 
of  this  effort  was  that  during  the  decades  that  fol- 
lowed the  mutiny,  Christianity  spread  at  a  rate  far 
surpassing  that  of  other  periods. 

116 


The  Missionary  and  Self-sacrifice 

One  feature  of  missionary  work  ought  not,  in 
this  connection,  to  be  passed  over  without  more 
emphasis  than  I  have  given  it.  There  has  always 
been,  and  there  probably  always  will  be,  an  element 
of  sorrow  in  the  service  of  man.  The  great  teachers 
and  reformers  of  the  past  have  not  slept  on  beds 
of  roses  nor  found  life  pass  like  a  bright  summer 
breeze.  The  progress  of  man  is  no  easy  process, 
with  banners  waving  and  music  leading  the  march- 
ers in  steady  and  strong  strides.  The  price  paid 
by  human  hearts  for  human  progress  is  infinite! 
Those  who  through  faith  have  subdued  kingdoms, 
wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises,  have 
always  paid  a  bitter  price  for  these  conquests  and 
the  privilege  of  this  glorious  labor.  They  have 
indeed  obtained  a  good  report.  We  now  say  of 
them,  that  the  world  was  not  worthy.  But  alas 
the  men  for  whom  they  immediately  labored  did 
not  say  it.  Missionaries  do  not  deal  in  their 
reports  and  home  speeches  with  this  side  of  their 
life.  But  I  fancy  he  must  have  a  strange  life  and 
a  strange  sphere  who  has  been  a  missionary  and 
not  sorrowed  through  and  for  his  work.  I  shall 
never  forget,  as  a  youth,  bidding  farewell  to  one 
man  of  whom  the  world  has  heard  little,  when  he 
went  back  to  his  apparently  hopeless  field  among 
the  Matebele  people  in  South  Central  Africa. 
When  Mr.  Sykes  turned  his  back  upon  his  native 
land,  with  his  years  increasing  and  his  distaste  for 
traveling  accentuated  by  the  years,  he  knew  that 
he  was  leaving  home  for  the  last  time.  He  had 
already  worked  five^and-twenty  years   amongst  a 

117 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

people  not  easily  surpassed  anywhere  for  their 
brutality  of  life,  and  he  had  not  baptised  one  con- 
vert. As  I  spoke  with  him  and  heard  his  humble 
words  of  determination  and  even  of  love  for  his 
life's  task,  and  saw  the  love  soften  his  face,  I  felt 
the  thrill  of  having  spoken  with  a  man  whom  one 
could  not  but  call  in  the  deepest  and  highest  sense 
of  the  words  "  a  heroic  soul."  His  martyrdom  last- 
ed a  life  time.  Similarly  one  could  not  speak 
with  James  Gilmour  of  Mongolia,  as  I  did,  during 
his  last  brief  visit  home,  and  remember  the  kind  of 
life  he  had  been  living  in  Mongolia  and  the  cheer- 
lessness  and  loneliness  to  which  he  was  about  to 
return  without  profound  emotion.  It  is  this  kind 
of  work  which  is  lifting  the  world  everywhere. 
By  no  other  kind  is  man  lifted.  Progress,  if,  as 
we  have  said  before,  it  has  to  do  fundamentally 
with  character,  must  then  always,  everywhere,  at 
home  and  abroad,  inevitably  mean  struggle,  sacri- 
fice, conquest.  Every  lift  must  cause  some  great 
strain  to  some  one  heart.  No  habitual  sin  is  re- 
pressed, no  social  shame  is  abolished,  no  individual 
vice  is  overcome  anywhere  without  pain.  They 
are  the  promoters  of  the  evolution  of  man,  who 
having  conquered  self  are  teaching  others  to  do  the 
same,  who  having  submitted  their  whole  nature  to 
the  control  of  the  Spirit  of  God,  give  up  life  itself 
to  teach  others  that  through  the  same  act  they,  too, 
may  mount  nearer  unto  heaven.  At  home  where 
we  are  surrounded  by  what  we  call,  and  what  is 
largely,  a  Christian  civilization,  these  facts  strike 
us  not  so  clearly;  yet  it  is  true  and  can  be  demon- 

1T3 


The  Missionary  and  Self=sacrifice 

strated  that  here  too  the  men  who  do  aught  for  the 
real  uplifting  of  our  race  suffer  for  it  and  work 
through  sorrow.  But  on  the  mission  field  you  can 
see  this  awful  and  wondrous  law  operating  openly 
and  continually.  There  you  can  imagine,  when 
the  missionary  has  begun  to  mold  the  thoughts 
of  some,  and  the  new  life  is  beginning  to  shake  the 
foundations  of  ancient  wrongs,  you  can  almost  im- 
agine that  every  tear  washes  some  stain  away,  that 
every  sigh  of  the  faithful  heart  helps  to  swell  the 
breeze  of  heaven  which  is  blowing  the  clouds  of 
thick  darkness  away. 

I  would  not  have  these  facts  leave  the  impression 
on  any  mind  that  the  career  of  the  missionary  is 
all  pain,  all  darkness,  all  struggle.  I  have  named 
them,  described  them,  emphasized  them,  because  it 
is  through  these  that  the  progress  of  man  is  being 
secured.  But  no  less  is  it  true  that  there  is  a 
brighter  side  to  the  missionary's  life.  The  bright- 
ness does  not  diminish  the  reality  of  the  darkness, 
the  joy  does  not  diminish  the  value  of  the  martyr- 
dom. But  it  is  there, — evidence  that  the  mission- 
ary is  living  on  the  right  lines  and  that  under  all 
the  sorrow,  all  the  discord  that  enter  into  his  life 
through  the  kind  of  work  that  he  is  doing,  there  is 
a  real  harmony,  a  deep  source  of  peace.  For  ex- 
ample, be  it  noted  that  his  kind  of  life  and  his 
very  devotion  to  it  react  on  the  missionary  himself. 
Face  to  face  there  with  all  that  denies  God,  the 
missionary  casts  himself  the  more  completely  upon 
God,  and  realizes  more  profoundly  the  characteris- 
tic experiences  of  the  Christian  life.     With  nothing 

113 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

around  him  to  encourage  his  faith,  he  must  have 
recourse  to  a  deep  and  more  constant  communion 
with  God.  The  inward  force  of  spiritual  facts 
must  be  multiplied  in  strength,  in  clearness,  in 
truth,  in  beauty  for  the  nourishing  of  his  own  faith 
and  the  filling  of  his  hope.  It  was  a  young  med- 
ical missionary  in  China  v/ho  wrote  home  to  his 
father  saying,  "Out  here,  where  I  am  much  alone,  I 
get  to  know,  I  am  thankful  to  say,  more  of  Christ 
as  a  personal  Savior."  * 

Other  facts  of  a  more  material  kind  enter 
into  his  experience.  He  goes  out  sometimes,  as  a 
man  of  comparatively  limited  intellectual  training, 
with  little  more  than  the  average  interests  and 
attainments  of  the  ministry,  and  he  is  plunged 
into  conditions  which  arouse  not  only  his  whole 
spiritual,  but  his  whole  intellectual  nature  to  activ- 
ity. The  very  task  of  learning  a  new  language  or 
languages  and  doing  so  far  more  thoroughly  than 
almost  any  ordinary  minister  learns  any  language, 
except  his  own,  mastering  all  matters  of  idiom  and 
pronunciation,  this  alone  is  sufficient  so  to  train 
his  mind  as  to  confer  upon  him  the  very  substance 
of  that  which  we  call  culture. 

Yet  again,  as  he  faces  the  conditions  of  society 
around  him  and  realizes  that  it  is  his  task,  by  God's 
grace,  to  transform  these;  as  the  actual  work  takes 
shape  and  form  before  him  and  he  must  organize 
in  this  direction  and  in  that,  he  finds  himself  deal- 
ing with  facts  of  a  greater  and  more  momentous 


*  Life  of  John  Kenneth  Mackenzie,  p.  68. 
120 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

kind  than  any  of  those  which  engage  the  mind  of 
the  average  minister  at  home.  He  is  forced  to  be- 
come a  statesman.  He  must  study  the  laws  of  the 
land,  the  organization  of  society,  and  in  many  cases 
must  himself  deal  with  the  reconstruction  of  these. 
For  a  man  with  high  and  noble  possibilities  in 
him,  all  this  must  afford  a  deep  and  true  satisfac- 
tion. 

And,  lastly,  there  is  the  joy  of  the  missionary, 
as  he  sees  his  own  great  work  succeeding.  Who 
knows  but  the  man  who  has  been  through  it,  what 
it  is  to  baptize  the  first  convert,  to  gather  with  a 
few  for  the  first  time  around  the  table  of  the  Lord's 
Supper,  to  listen  to  the  first  song  and  prayer  of 
family  worship  in  a  native  home,  to  hear  a  native 
begin  to  teach  his  fellows  to  read,  or  the  first  evan- 
gelist open  his  mouth  to  preach  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ.  When  the  missionary  is  a  man  ab- 
sorbed, first  and  last,  in  prayer  and  labor  and  hope 
for  these  as  the  highest  results  of  all  his  efforts — 
and  how  few  there  have  been  of  whom  this  is  not 
true — it  may  be  said  that  his  Joy  on  such  occasions 
is  a  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory. 

II. 

At  one  time  it  was  thought  self-evident  that  mar- 
tyrdom is  a  direct  proof  of  the  truth  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion.  It  was  urged  that  the  fact  that  men 
and  women  were  willing  to  offer  their  lives  and 
endure  untold  agonies  for  the  sake  of  the  Gospel 
is  in  itself  enough  to  establish  the  reality  of  the 
revelation  in  whose  name  they  suffered.     In  recent 

121 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

years  there  has  been  a  tendency  to  disparage  this 
appeal  to  the  witness  of  martyrs  for  confirmation 
of  the  Christian  faith,  and  people  have  gone  to 
the  other  extreme.  It  is  now  very  commonly  al- 
leged that  martyrdom  proves  nothing;  that  all 
kinds  of  superstition  have  had  their  martyrs;  that  if 
only  excitement  enough  is  aroused  many  people 
will  die  for  the  most  despised  forms  of  doctrine. 
The  Hindoo  is  pointed  out  as  on  the  whole  a  will- 
ing sufferer  through  his  prolonged  acts  of  self- 
mutilation  or  self-denial  in  the  pursuit  of  his  re- 
ligious ideal.  He  will  deform  his  body,  allow 
hooks  to  be  passed  through  his  back  for  the  hor- 
rible swinging  festival,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  his 
religious  faith.  Yet,  again,  the  Mohammedan  will 
gladly  rush  on  death  with  the  cry  of  "  Allah  "  upon 
his  lips,  assured  that  if  he  die  for  the  sake  of  his 
religion  he  will  pass  immediately  into  the  paradise 
of  sensual  joy.  Yet,  again,  the  internal  history  of 
the  Christian  church  itself  is  furnishing  evidence 
that  martyrdom  proves  nothing,  for  there  the  op- 
posing parties  have  often  been  willing  to  sacrifice 
their  lives  in  the  defense  of  the  doctrines  which 
they  respectively  defended.  Eomanists  and  Prot- 
estants alike  have  gone  into  the  flames  or  laid  their 
heads  upon  the  executioner's  block.  How,  then, 
it  is  urged,  in  the  face  of  facts  like  these  can  it  be 
argued  by  any  man  who  is  abreast  of  the  thought 
of  his  day,  that  the  history  of  the  martyrdoms 
which  have  accompanied  the  spread  of  the  Gospel 
is  of  any  value  in  determining  the  truth  or  the 

122 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

untruth  of  the  Christian  or  of  any  other  form  of 
belief? 

To  begin  with,  I  must  confess  to  a  feeling  of  dis- 
trust regarding  any  and  every  tendency  to  decry 
any  of  the  great  characteristics  of  human  history 
as  being  worthless.  I  do  not  think  that  the  self^ 
immolations  of  the  Hindoo  are  valueless,  nor  that 
the  passionate  devotion  of  the  Mohammedan  stands 
for  nothing  in  the  evolution  of  man,  nor  that  the 
devotion  of  opposing  parties  within  the  Christian 
church  has  not  been  necessary  to  the  development 
of  the  race.  It  seems  too  easy  to  push  aside  all 
the  sacrifices  of  mankind  on  behalf  of  their  relig- 
ious ideals  as  being  mere  superstition  or  mere 
enthusiasm  or  merely  hysterical;  and  therefore 
unworthy  of  scientific  investigation.  This  class  of 
phenomena  must  be  taken  more  seriously  than  it 
has  been  and  investigated  on  a  wide  scale  with 
sympathetic  interest,  ere  there  can  be  a  chance  of 
doing  justice  to  it  and  its  influence  in  history.  In 
the  first  place,  we  must  distinguish  between  the 
various  classes  of  martyrdom  which  have  occurred 
in  the  history  of  religion.  It  is  evident,  for  exam- 
ple, that  the  wild  enthusiasm  of  the  Mohammedan 
which  invariably  takes  the  form  of  the  intoxication 
of  battle  is  distinct  from  the  spirit  of  either  the 
Hindoo  devotee  or  the  Christian  martyr.  The 
Mohammedan  is  not  taught  that  he  will  gain  para- 
dise for  mere  martyrdom,  he  must  fight  and  fight- 
ing, die  for  his  faith.  His  is  not  the  meek  and 
quiet  spirit  that   endureth  all  things,  because  it 

123 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

loves  all  men.  It  contains  no  ethical  element  ex- 
cept that  of  determination  to  win  a  physical  para- 
dise and  if  necessary  to  kill  as  many  human  beings 
as  possible  in  the  effort. 

And  then  as  regards  the  Hindoo,  one  cannot  but 
see  in  such  profound  self-denial  a  fact  of  real 
value.  His  martyrdom,  although  self==inflicted,  is 
not  worthless,  is  not  to  be  swept  aside  as  the  blind 
and  unreasoning  outcome  of  an  ignorant  and  base- 
less superstition.  Is  it  not  the  expression  of  his 
profound  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  ideal  life,  whose 
glory  is  so  great,  though  he  but  dimly  see  it  and 
feel  after  it  and  know  not  when  he  has  found  it, 
that  he  will  give  up  all  else  for  that?  The  Mo- 
hammedan merely  wants  another  world,  another 
and  longer  life,  like  this.  The  Hindoo  or  the  Bud- 
dhist devotee  stands  amongst  men  as  a  wonderful 
witness  to  the  infinite  value  of  the  spiritual  world, 
into  which  the  physical  and  the  sensual  enter  not, 
for  hearts  that  have  caught  the  vision  of  its  reality. 

As  regards  the  martyrdoms  that  have  arisen  in 
the  course  of  the  struggles  between  the  parties  in 
the  Christian  church,  we  must  be  careful  again  to 
distinguish.  Some  of  these  have  a  religious  signifi- 
cance which  is  immediate  and  evident,  while  some 
have  been  the  expression  simply  of  devotion  to  a 
party  or  to  a  national  ideal.  Where  patriotism  or 
partisanship  have  entered  in,  they  must  be  esti- 
mated after  the  same  fashion  as  we  estimate  the 
significance  for  the  human  race  of  the  soldier's 
devotion  to  his  country.  Where  these  martyrdoms 
have  contained  true  Christian  or  religious  signifi- 

124 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

cance  has  been  where  those  who  suffered,  whether 
heretic  or  orthodox,  Romanist  or  Protestant,  be- 
lieved sincerely  that  the  doctrine  for  which  they 
contended  had  an  essential  connection  with  the 
central  facts  of  the  Christian  faith  and  experience, 
as  such.  They  may  have  been  wrong  on  either 
side,  sometimes  on  both  sides;  but  so  far  as  they 
seemed  to  themselves  to  see  a  vital  connection  be- 
tween specific  doctrines  and  the  very  essence  of 
the  Christian  religion,  their  martyrdom  must  be 
considered  as  belonging  to  the  same  class  as  the 
martyrdoms  of  those  who  suffered  for  the  faith  at 
the  hands  of  heathen  men. 

What,  then,  have  been  those  elements  in  the 
sacrifices  of  Christian  martyrs  which  distinguish 
them  from  sacrifices  made  by  all  other  religious 
devotees?  The  following  observations  may  be 
taken  as,  I  hope,  not  incorrect  and  not  without 
some  important  bearing  upon  the  problem  before  us. 

(1.)  In  the  first  place  let  the  case  of  the  Chris- 
tian martyrdoms  be  stated  thus:  Throughout 
these  nineteen  hundred  years  innumerable  in- 
dividuals have  been  put  to  torture  and  death  on 
account  of  their  faith  by  their  own  tribal  or  na- 
tional authorities.  The  torture  is  not  of  their 
choosing;  it  is  inflicted  upon  them;  and  this  not 
amid  the  excitement  of  battle,  but  in  cold  blood, 
before  the  eyes  of  thousands  of  onlookers,  or  in 
lonely  dungeons  and  secret  chambers  of  horror.  In 
accepting  the  Christian  faith  they  have,  as  indi- 
viduals, broken  away  from  all  the  traditions  and 
customs  of  their  people.    They  have  laid  them- 

125 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

selves  open  to  the  derision  and  contempt  of  their 
fellow  countrymen,  of  all  whom  they  count  dear. 
In  many  cases  they  have  stood  alone,  unsup- 
ported by  any  sympathy  from  any  other  human 
being.  In  suffering  they  endured  all  that  was 
done  to  them  without  resistance.  In  these  partic- 
ulars, as  it  seems  to  me,  the  Christian  martyrs  are 
so  entirely  separated  either  from  the  warlike  devo- 
tion of  the  Mohammedan  or  the  self-inflicted  pains 
of  the  Indian  devotee  as  to  necessitate  their  being 
put  into  a  class  by  themselves,  that  the  nature  and 
significance  of  their  function  in  history  may  be 
understood  and  studied  on  its  own  merits.  It  is 
the  shallowest  conceivable  method  to  group  them 
all  together  and  to  pass  a  contemptuous  judgment 
on  them,  saying  that  people  will  die  for  any  super- 
stition, that  the  appetite  for  martyrdom  spreads 
like  contagion,  and  that  the  history  of  Christian 
martyrdom  is  valueless  for  that  reason.  There  are 
species  of  martyrdom  which  should  be  studied  sep- 
arately as  well  as  comparatively,  and  of  these  the 
Christian  martyrdom  seems  to  be  specifically  dis- 
tinct from  all  other  forms  known  to  history. 

(2.)  It  is  of  great  importance  to  observe  that 
this  course  of  persecution  has  characterized  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  into  nearly  every  na- 
tion and  tribe  upon  the  earth.  Wheresoever  this 
religion  has  gone  it  has  aroused  a  deep  hostility 
toward  itself.  And  those  who  have  broken  away 
from  their  native  religions  and  become  its  adher- 
ents have,  practically  without  exception,  been  com- 
pelled to  pay  a  bitter  price  for  the  transference 

126 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

of   their   allegiance   from  idols  and   fetiches  and 
Mohammed  to  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ. 

(3.)  Wheresoever  these  martyrdoms  have  been 
endured  they  have,  again  I  must  say  almost  invar- 
iably, led  to  an  extension  of  the  Christian  faith 
among  the  masses  of  the  people  and  even  among 
the  persecutors  and  executioners  themselves.  "  The 
blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church," 
is  one  of  those  utterances  which  have  become  pro- 
verbial because  universal  experience  proves  them 
true.  Again  it  seems  not  only  the  easiest  but  the 
least  satisfactory  way  of  accounting  for  this  phe- 
nomenon to  say  that  the  sight  of  suffering  produces 
a  reaction  of  excitement  amongst  the  onlookers 
and  executioners,  and  arouses  in  them  a  willingness 
to  enter  upon  the  same  experience.  Enthusiasm 
is  indeed  contagious.  The  enthusiasm  of  the 
veteran  kindles  ardor  in  the  shrinking  heart  of  the 
recruit  as  they  rush  towards  battle.  The  enthusiasm 
of  a  great  orator  will  inflame  the  hearts  of  a  great 
multitude  for  some  great  cause.  It  is  a  familiar 
fact  that  crowds  are  easily  swayed,  that  the  same 
people  who  at  one  time  are  filled  with  insatiable 
desire  for  a  king's  blood  may,  by  means  of  a  clever 
retort  or  some  act  which  sets  in  motion  a  wave  of 
sympathy  through  their  hearts,  swing  their  fickle 
feelings  to  the  opijosite  pole  and  they  are  ready 
to  shout,  "  Long  live  the  king."  But  I  have  yet  to 
see  a  successful  exposition  of  the  psychological 
steps  through  wdiich  the  seeing  of  men  under  tor- 
ture awakens  a  desire  in  the  observers  for  the  same 
experience.     We   do   not  read  that  when  eastern 

127 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

potentates  caused  their  captives  to  be  slain  in  their 
presence  any  other  people  were  willing  to  become 
captives  on  the  same  terms.  There  must  be  some- 
thing in  the  sight  of  Christian  martyrdom,  giving 
it  that  strange  power  which  for  nineteen  hundred 
years  it  has  manifested  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
amongst  all  kinds  of  human  beings,  which  is  not 
to  be  found  in  other  forms  of  religious  self- 
sacrifice. 

(4.)  When  Christian  martyrs  have  suffered 
they  have  often  seemed  to  triumph.  The  rule  has 
been  that  they  have  carried  themselves  calmly  and 
bravely  and  have  manifested  a  serene  joy  and 
spoken  of  a  certain  hope  which  filled  their  hearts 
even  in  the  midst  of  darkest  physical  distress. 
This  hope  must  not  be  confused  with  the  burning 
passion  of  the  Mohammedan.  There  have  been 
spurious  Christian  martyrdoms  wherein  some  men 
appear  to  have  cherished  expectations  somewhat 
resembling  the  sensuous.  But  we  must  not  judge 
any  movement  by  its  spurious  imitations,  but  by  its 
normal  type;  and  the  normal  typical  attitude  of 
the  Christian  martyr  is  presented  in  his  hope  of 
immediate  admission  to  the  presence  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  whole  motive  of  his  life  is  summed 
up  in  that  name  and  the  whole  glory  that  he  sees 
before  him,  even  through  the  martyr  flames  or  up 
beyond  the  circles  of  the  amphitheater  in  the  blue 
heavens,  finds  its  fullest  expression  in  the  apos- 
tolic longing  to  be  with  Christ.  Now  whether  this 
hope  is  rational  or  not,  it  must,  as  one  that  has  ex- 
ercised so  large  a  place  in  the  history  of  the  Chris- 

128 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

tian  centuries,  receive  scientific  justice.  Its  na- 
ture must  be  understood  in  distinction  from  what- 
ever other  motives  have  made  men  willing  to 
endure  suffering  and  death. 

(5.)  Along  with  this  joyous  hopeful  spirit  the 
martyrs  have,  as  a  rule,  and  certainly  in  all  those 
cases  where  their  martyrdom  has  proved  fruitful, 
manifested  a  spirit  of  purity  and  kindness  and 
patience  towards  their  persecutors  and  the  world 
at  large.  They  have  not  striven  to  resist  by  shed- 
ding the  blood  of  their  enemies.  They  have  not 
looked  at  these  with  hatred  or  scorn,  but  only  with 
calm  dignity,  sometimes  with  tender  pity.  They 
have  gazed  as  from  a  superior  level  upon  the  very 
men  who  judged  them  and  spoken  mercy  to  the 
poor  creatures  who  were  used  as  the  instruments 
of  their  execution.  This  purity,  sympathy,  lov- 
ingness  of  spirit  must  be  closely  connected  in  our 
minds  with  that  faith  in  the  God  of  Jesus  Christ 
for  which  they  died.  We  have  seen  in  other  pages 
that  in  their  religion,  morality  and  religion  were 
not  indeed  identified  but  unified.  Here  for  the  first 
time  in  history  the  religious  and  the  ethical  have 
become  indissoluble.  The  relation  of  the  believer 
to  the  Savior  is  an  ethical  one  because  it  is  per- 
sonal. It  involves  him  instantly  in  obligations 
towards  his  Master  whose  fulfilment  is  seen  in  the 
new  character  which  he  wears.  The  relationship 
is  religious,  because  it  is  the  dependence  of  a 
creature  upon  the  Creator,  of  a  sinful  man  upon 
the  Savior,  but  it  is  ethical,  because  it  involves  him 
in  obligations  of  a  definite  and  indisputable  kind. 

129 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

And  there  in  the  martyr's  face,  this  union  shines. 
He  looks  up  and  it  is  with  a  religious  hope;  he 
looks  round  and  it  is  with  a  forgiving  love.  And 
the  one  name  of  Jesus  Christ  explains  both  the  new 
religion  and  its  indissoluble  partner,  the  new  mo- 
rality. 

(6.)  Now  as  to  the  communication  of  the  mar- 
tyr's faith  to  others.  It  seems  to  be  capable  of  a 
very  clear  and  definite  proof,  that  the  elements 
which  have,  at  any  rate  in  the  vast  majority  of 
cases,  attracted  the  interest  or  awakened  the  faith 
of  the  persecutors  have  been  the  expression  and 
look  of  religious  enthusiasm,  and  the  new  ethical 
qualities  manifested  even  in  cruel  death  by  these 
sufferers.  These  features  of  human  experience 
when  presented  to  the  conscience  of  those  who  saw 
them,  amid  much  horror,  have  awakened  that  insa- 
tiable hunger  after  the  same  condition  of  heart  and 
life.  It  seems  in  fact  not  to  have  been  the  flames  but 
the  personal  qualities  of  the  sufferers  that  attracted 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  crowds;  the  patience,  the 
love,  the  purity,  as  well  as  the  confidence  and  the 
hope  of  those  whom  they  watched  in  martyrdom, 
have  convinced  men  that  this  is  not  mere  physical 
excitement,  that  this  phenomenon  could  only  be 
explained  by  a  wondrous  experience,  whose  beauty 
and  glory  were  revealed  in  the  new  light  which 
shone  out  of  their  souls.  That  which  results, 
then,  when  the  spread  of  the  Christian  religion 
through  martyrdoms  is  normal  from  the  Christian 
point  of  view,  is  not  that  these,  who  become  con- 
verts, immediately  thirst  for  martyrdom  and  them- 

130 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

selves  seek  the  flames.  They  do  nothing  of  the  sort. 
They  go  away  with  guilty  consciences  to  Christian 
teachers  and  learn  of  them.  They  have  been 
pierced  to  the  quick  of  the  deeper  man  and,  de- 
termined to  attain  that  condition  of  conscience 
and  will  which  they  saw  in  those  martyrs,  they 
X^ersist  in  learning  until  they  too  have  won  this 
faith  in  Christ,  and  until  in  them  this  religious  re- 
lationship has  produced  those  ethical  qualities 
which  always  flow  from  it  and  which,  so  far  as  the 
heathen  world  knows,  have  flowed  from  it  alone. 
Always  from  first  to  last  the  phenomena  connected 
with  the  expansion  of  this  religion  are  spurious, 
are  disowned  by  the  religion  itself  and  its  wiser 
adherents,  are  found  in  the  long  run  to  affect  others 
with  anything  but  sympathy  and  devotion,  unless 
this  ethical  element  is  evident  in  the  lives  alike  of 
those  who  bear  witness  and  those  who  through 
their  witness  whether  in  life  or  death  become  con- 
vinced and  converted. 

The  ordinary  notion  that  martyrdom  spreads 
through  the  awakening  of  a  kind  of  physical  ex- 
citement will  not  bear  the  test  of  comparison  with 
any  actual  instances,  Take  the  case  of  the  per- 
secution in  Madagascar  to  which  reference  has 
been  made.  Can  it  be  maintained  that  when  that 
first  sufferer,  a  young  girl  of  attractive  appear- 
ance, asked  to  be  allowed  to  pray  and  was  speared 
as  she  knelt  on  the  ground,  that  that  scene 
was  likely  to  arouse  a  desire  in  the  minds  of 
others  to  kneel  there  and  be  speared  in  their 
turn?  Yet  that  was  the  beginning  of  a  magnif- 
131 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

icent  series  of  martyrdoms  in  that  land.  We 
are  not  told  that  the  people  who  witnessed  those 
dreadful  events  tried  to  get  themselves  killed. 
That  which  we  are  told  is  that  more  and  more 
inquirers  came  forward  who  besought  the  Chris- 
tians to  teach  them  the  secret  of  the  new  life 
which  they  were  so  manifestly  living.  Or  let  us 
look  at  the  extraordinary  story  of  the  conver- 
sion of  Uganda.  The  work  of  putting  down  the 
new  religion  began  with  the  burning  of  three 
young  boys  aged  sixteen,  fourteen  and  twelve 
years  respectively.  They  had  never  seen,  perhaps 
never  heard  of,  a  martyrdom  and  they  could  not 
be  induced  to  give  up  their  new  faith.  When 
challenged  by  some  of  the  executioners  we  are 
told  that  they  raised  their  young  voices  in  a 
Christian  hymn.  The  effect  of  their  demeanor 
and  that  of  others  who  followed  them  to  the  mar- 
tyr's death  was  such  that  some  even  of  the  ex- 
ecutioners became  Christians.  Why  and  how  was 
this?  Not  because  a  wave  of  excitement  was 
making  the  stake  popular,  which  is  what  some 
would  have  us  believe.  On  the  contrary  when 
their  turn  came  these  men  and  women  naturally 
and  rightly  did  their  best  to  escape.  For  ex- 
ample, when  a  certain  man  who  had  been  sent  out 
by  the  king  to  collect  tribute  from  a  subject  tribe 
returned,  he  was  met  with  the  pleasant  news  that 
he  was  to  be  slain  for  his  faith  in  Christ.  He  did 
not  rejoice.  On  the  contrary  he  shrank  in  a  very 
healthy  fashion  from  a  violent  death.  Neverthe- 
less he  carried  his  royal  master's  treasure  to  the 

132 


The  Value  of  Martyrdom 

palace  lest  it  should  be  said  a  Christian  had  been 
unfaithful  to  his  trust,  and  then  precipitately  fled 
for  his  life.  All  the  deaths  of  violence  in  Uganda 
had  not  made  him  even  "  half  in  love  "  with  death, 
as  Keats  said  the  nightingale  had  made  him. 
The  martyrs  would  seem  to  have  drawn  men  to 
the  Christian  faith  because  in  the  moment  of 
death  these  heroes  made  it  plain  that  they  had 
received  a  new  experience  so  real,  so  glorious, 
that  they  were  willing  to  give  up  all  rather  than 
deny  Him  from  whose  love  they  have  all  always 
believed  it  had  come.  That  executioner  in  Ugan- 
da who  hurried  to  the  missionary  as  an  earnest 
inquirer  had  seen  in  those  victims  of  his  an  ex- 
perience which  he  longed  to  possess.  His  sense 
of  need  was  aroused.  His  conscience  was  made 
quick.  A  nobler  man  was  beginning  to  stir  in  his 
brutish  heart. 

That  is  how  the  Church  has  spread  through 
martyrdom  from  the  beginning  of  its  history  till 
now.  Who  will  say  that  such  phenomena  appear- 
ing constantly,  everywhere,  for  nineteen  centuries, 
prove  nothing? 

(7.)  In  fine,  let  it  be  repeated  that  the  change 
of  character  which,  I  believe,  above  all  else  has 
given  the  martyrs  of  the  Christian  church  their 
influence  over  the  world,  has  been  always  in  their 
own  minds  allied  with,  and  has  by  all  Christian 
people  been  felt  and  said  to  depend  upon,  that 
condition  of  pardon,  of  union  with  God,  which 
they  attain  through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  Ap- 
proach the  problem  of  the  spread  of  Christianity 

133 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

form  whatever  poiot  we  may,  study  its  influence 
upon  society  from  any  aspect,  we  are  always 
brought  face  to  face  with  this,  that  the  Christian 
religion  develops  all  its  life,  all  its  ethical  influ- 
ence and  manifests  all  its  purifying  power  in  the 
human  race,  from  this  condition  of  fellowship 
with  God,  which  all  Christians  say  that  they  re- 
ceive through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 

134 


CHAPTER  VII. 
THE  MISSIONARY  AND  CIVILIZATION. 

One  hears  from  various  critics  of  the  missionary 
movement  the  expression  of  two  ideas  which  one 
cannot  call  anything  but  superstitious.  They  are 
criticisms  not  founded  upon  accurate  observation 
of  the  facts,  either  in  connection  with  the  lives  of 
the  savages  or  with  the  effects  of  the  introduction 
of  the  Christian  religion. 

The  first  of  these  asserts,  that  the  savage  is,  on 
the  whole,  an  innocent,  simple-hearted  and  happy 
being.  The  severe  morality  of  the  Christian  re- 
ligion is  supposed  to  enter  as  a  disturber  of  the 
peace  upon  the  calm  and  satisfaction  of  savage 
life.  This  sentimental  criticism  is  only  made  by  a 
certain  class  of  people,  who  have  exercised  con- 
siderable influence  in  recent  years,  the  same  class 
of  people  who  have  preached  art  for  art's  sake  and 
the  substitution  of  what  is  called  'Hellenism'  for 
Christianity.  It  is  all  superstition;  they  simply 
do  not  know  the  facts.  A  man  who  will  go  into 
a  truly  heathen  village  almost  anywhere  will  find 
such  customs  and  barbarities  as  will  make  his 
blood  run  cold.  Not  to  speak  of  the  fearful  deg- 
radation which  reigned  over  the  South  Sea  Islands 
and  New  Guinea  when  cannibalism  was  practised; 
if  we  only  go  to  tribes  of  South  Africa,  we  shall 
find  sufficient  of  shame  and  bitterness  and  murder 

135 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

and  rapine  to  dispel  forever  that  vision  of  the 
peaceful  and  innocent  savage  which  some  have 
tried  to  cherish.  The  actual  morality  of  heathen- 
ism is  indescribable.  Nowhere  in  heathenism 
does  society  as  such  cast  a  stigma  upon  the  liar  or 
the  cheat.  The  murderer  may  be  avenged,  but 
not  by  law,  only  by  the  vengeance  of  the  relatives 
of  his  victim.  As  for  what  we  understand  by  pu- 
rity, it  is  simply  undreamt  of,  even  as  a  possibility, 
far  less  conceived  of  as  a  law  incumbent  upon 
individuals.  Mrs.  Bishop  the  welhknown  travel- 
er says,  "Missionaries  come  home  and  refrain 
from  shocking  audiences  by  recitals  of  the 
awful  sins  of  the  heathen  and  heathen  world. 
When  traveling  in  Asia,  it  struck  me  very  much, 
how  little  we  heard,  how  little  we  knew,  as  to 
how  sin  is  cultivated,  and  deified,  and  worshiped."  ^ 
The  same  remarkable  traveler  and  observer  has 
made  the  following  authoritative  statements  re- 
garding the  conditions  of  home  life  in  lands  which 
we  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  as  possessing  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  civilization.  "  I  have  lived  in  zena- 
"  nas,  and  harems,  and  have  seen  the  daily  life  of 
"  the  secluded  women,  and  I  can  speak  from  bitter 
"  experience  of  what  their  lives  are — the  intellect 
"  dwarfed,  so  that  the  woman  of  twenty  or  thirty 
"  years  of  age  is  more  like  a  child  of  eight  intel- 
"lectually;  while  all  the  worst  passions  of 
"  human  nature  are  stimulated  and  developed  in  a 


1" Heathen  Claims   and   Christian  Duty"    by   Mrs.  Bishop 
(Boston). 

136 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

"fearful  degree — jealousy,  envy,  murderous  hate, 
"  intrigue,  running  to  such  an  extent  that  in  some 
"  countries  I  have  hardly  ever  been  in  a  woman's 
"  house  or  near  a  woman's  tent  without  being 
"  asked  for  drugs  with  which  to  destroy  the  favor- 
"  ite  wife,  to  take  away  her  life,  or  to  take  away 
"  the  life  of  the  favorite  wife's  infant  son.  This 
"  request  has  been  made  of  me  nearly  two  hundred 
"  times.  This  is  only  an  indication  of  the  daily  life 
"  of  whose  miseries  we  think  so  little,  and  which  is 
"  a  natural  product  of  the  system  that  we  ought  to 
"have  subverted  long  ago."  ^  I  shall  not  waste 
time  in  proving  that  what  is  true  of  the  orientals 
is  true,  at  least  as  true,  of  less  civilized  people. 

The  second  superstition  consists  in  the  idea  that, 
if  only  the  missionary  would  let  well  alone,  the 
effects  of  contact  with  higher  forms,  i.  e.,  European 
and  American  forms,  of  civilization  would  gradually 
give  new  personal  and  social  ideals  to  the  heathen 
world,  and  civilization  pure  and  simple  would  raise 
the  condition  of  the  heathen  world  to  the  political, 
industrial  and  family  attainments  of  what  we  call 
Christendom.  Again  it  must  be  said  that  such  a 
theory  can  only  be  cherished  by  those  who  ignore 
the  facts.  The  testimony  as  to  the  effects  of  con- 
tact between  a  higher  and  a  lower  civilization  as 
such,  is  nowadays  almost  superabundant,  and  it  is 
painful  in  the  extreme  to  any  true  lover  of  mankind. 
In  no  single  case  is  it  favorable  to  the  theory  which 
I  have  stated.     Throughout  the  world  the  contact 


1  Ibid,  p.  9. 

137 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

of  the  heathen  peoples  with  civilization  has  been 
through  the  three  avenues  of  war,  commerce  and 
Christianity.  Nowhere  has  European  civilization 
communicated  itself  to  lower  races  simply  through 
the  first  two,  conquest  and  trade;  rather  must  it 
be  said  that  the  tendency  of  these  two  species  of 
communion  between  the  higher  and  the  lower,  has 
invariably  been  towards  the  destruction  of  the 
lower  races.  The  trader  with  a  few  noble  excep- 
tions has  not  been  a  man,  either  in  Africa  or  the 
South  Sea  Islands  or  in  the  Orient,  whose  influence 
tended  to  raise  the  character  of  those  with  whom 
he  dealt;  and  the  conquerors,  the  soldiers  and  gov- 
ernors of  these  peoples  were  not,  until  the  close  of 
the  first  quarter  of  this  century,  men  who  gave 
much  thought  or  care  to  the  uplifting  of  those 
from  whom  they  exacted  the  homage  of  subjects. 
In  fact,  it  is  notorious  that  these  representatives 
of  civilization  have,  as  a  rule,  lived  lives  which 
would  have  brought  upon  them  disgrace  and  ostra- 
cism from  ^11  decent  society  in  their  homedands. 
Where  they  have  come  into  contact  with  mission- 
ary operations,  the  natives  have  in  thousands  of 
cases  pointed  the  finger  of  scorn  at  them  and  said 
to  the  missionaries.  Are  these  the  products  of  your 
Christian  religion?  Hence,  one  may  with  every 
confidence  quote  the  strong  affirmation  of  the  Rev. 
James  Chalmers,  one  of  the  noblest  of  living  mis- 
sionaries: "I  have  had  twenty-one  years' experi- 
"  ence  amongst  natives.  I  have  seen  the  semi-civil- 
"ized  and  the  uncivilized;  I  have  lived  with  the 
*'  Christian  native,   and   I   have  lived,  dined  and 

138 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

"  slept  with  the  cannibal.  I  have  visited  the 
"  islands  of  the  new  Hebrides;  I  have  visited  the 
"  Loyalty  Group;  I  have  seen  the  work  of  missions 
"in  the  Samoan  Group;  I  have  known  all  the 
"islands  of  the  Society  Group;  I  have  lived  for 
"  ten  years  in  the  Hervey  Group;  I  know  a  few  of 
"  the  groups  close  on  the  line,  and  for  at  least  nine 
"  years  of  my  life  have  lived  with  the  savages  of 
"New  Guinea;  but  I  have  never  yet  met  with  a 
"  single  man  or  woman,  or  with  a  single  people, 
"  that  your  civilization  without  Christianity  has 
"  civilized.  For  God's  sake  let  it  be  done  at  once! 
"  Gospel  and  commerce,  but  remember  this,  it 
"  must  be  the  Gospel  first.  Wherever  there  has 
"been  the  slightest  spark  of  civilization  in  the 
"  Southern  Seas,  it  has  been  where  the  Gospel  has 
"been  preached;  and  wherever  you  find  in  the 
"  island  of  New  Guinea  a  friendly  people  or  a  peo- 
"  pie  that  will  welcome  you  there,  it  is  where  the 
"  missionaries  of  the  cross  have  been  preaching 
"Christ.  Civilization!  The  rampart  can  only  be 
"  stormed  by  those  who  carry  the  cross." 

In  the  report  made  by  a  Parliamentary  Commit- 
tee in  1837,  of  which  Mr.  Gladstone  is  the  only 
survivor,  the  following  strong  language  is  used: 
"It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  intercourse  of 
Europeans  in  general  without  any  exception  in 
favor  of  the  subjects  of  Great  Britain,  has  been, 
unless  when  attended  by  missionary  exertions,  a 
source  of  many  calamities  to  uncivilized  nations." 
It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  in  similar  rejDorts 
made  by  the  United  States  Government  concern- 

139 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ing  the  condition  of  the  Red  Indian  tribes  a  simi- 
lar assertion  is  made:  "When  the  Government 
wholly  failed,  the  voluntary  efforts  of  the  Churches 
have  been  crowned  with  success.  The  preaching 
of  the  Gospel  has  done  the  work  and  it  alone."  ^ 

Instead  of  merely  answering  criticisms  based  on 
ignorance  of  the  facts,  let  the  following  statement 
suffice  regarding  the  results  which  can  be  proved 
almost  invariably  to  follow  from  the  contact  of 
higher  with  lower  races.  In  the  first  place,  this 
contact,  as  it  becomes  more  and  more  intimate  and 
as  education  and  the  reading  of  foreign  literature 
spreads,  tends  to  destroy  the  faiths  of  these  peo- 
ples in  their  own  religions.  Now  every  religion 
has  been  a  center  of  strength  for  preserving  some 
measure  of  order  and  decency  in  the  social  life  of 
the  humblest  peoples.  The  richer  the  faith,  the 
stronger  has  been  its  influence  in  this  regard,  the 
higher  the  sanction  which  it  seems  to  afford  to  the 
ideas  of  rectitude  obtaining  among  the  people. 
Naturally,  therefore,  the  removing  of  faith  intro- 
duces disorder  into  the  social  life  and  tends  to  low- 
er the  character  of  the  individuals  so  affected. 
The  evidence  for  this  is  especially  abundant  from 
among  the  higher  races.  The  Marquis  Ito,  one  of 
Japan's  greatest  statesman,  who  has  done  so  much 
to  bring  in  the  new  Japan  of  to-day,  though  not  a 
Christian  himself,   has  recently  said  that  he  and 


^ "  Linguistic  and  Oriental  Essays,"  3d  Series.  By  R.  N. 
Cust,  LL.  D.,  pp.  359,  362.  For  a  terrible  description  of 
the  eflEects  upon  lower  races  of  unchristian  civilization,  vide 
Ibid.,  2d  Series,  pp.  533,  536. 

140 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

his  associates  have  always  looked  with  favor  upon 
missions  and  they  are  now  certain  that  the  pres- 
ence of  Christians  in  the  land  saved  the  students, 
even  in  the  Government  Schools,  from  sinking  in- 
to an  immediate  immorality  which  would  otherwise 
have  been  unavoidable.  That  is  to  say,  this  man, 
who  is  an  authority  regarding  Japan's  attempted 
rush  into  civilization,  says  that  this  rush  was  ac- 
companied by  a  terrible  dissolution  of  sach  sanc- 
tions as  had  hitherto  obtained  among  the  youth  of 
the  land.  And  he  sees  that  a  widespread  immoral- 
ity would  have  been  the  result.  The  same  experi- 
ence has  presented,  on  a  vaster  scale,  terrific  prob- 
lems to  the  rulers  of  India.  It  was  one  of  the 
earliest  observations  of  Dr.  Duff,  as  well  as  of 
Christian  men  amongst  those  who  v/ere  in  posi- 
tions of  civil  authority  in  that  Empire,  that  the 
young  men  who  attended  the  Government  Schools, 
having  lost  all  faith  in  their  own  gods,  showed 
marked  tendencies  towards  unscrupulous  and  li- 
centious modes  of  life. 

The  second  effect  which  is  produced  by  this 
contact  of  culture  with  heathen  forms  of  civiliza- 
tion is  that  the  native  forms  of  government 
cease  to  be  effective.  This  appears  especially  in 
cases  like  those  of  the  South  African  tribes;  but 
one  of  the  most  notorious  and  remarkable  is  that 
of  Hawaii  whose  governmental  history  has  been 
so  full  of  incident  and  change  in  recent  years. 
When  a  number  of  Europeans  have  settled  with- 
in their  territory  and  have  begun  to  affect  the  tri- 
bal life  and  habits  by  means  of  trade,  the  chiefs  be- 


Chritsianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

gin  to  find  their  hold  upon  their  own  people  loos- 
ened. The  Europeans,  being  most  evidently  su- 
perior to  all  the  natives  and  even  to  their  chiefs, 
and  being  sometimes  apt  to  treat  the  latter  with 
freedom  and  an  air  of  condescension,  do  undoubt- 
edly help  to  bring  the  chiefs  into  contempt  among 
their  own  subjects.  One  can  easily  see  that,  as 
Europeans  settle  in  increasing  numbers  among 
such  peoples,  their  evident  power  gradually  over- 
shadows the  authority  of  those  who  hitherto 
have  been  the  guardians  of  law  and  order  in  those 
regions,  and  oftentimes  great  disorder  ensues. 
Here  again  the  natural  tendency  of  civilization, 
as  such,  is  not  to  elevate  the  lower  races. 

Not  so  is  it  that  the  Christian  religion  acts  in  such 
cases.  For  if  it  be  true  that  war  and  trade  and 
secular  education  have  not  tended  to  civilize  but 
to  destroy  heathen  peoples;  it  is  nevertheless  evi- 
dently true  that  scores  of  races  have  not  only  been 
saved  from  extinction,  but  have  been  placed  in 
what  seems  to  be  the  line  of  continuous  prog- 
ress by  the  work  of  the  missionaries. 

This  is  a  fact  of  such  extraordinary  importance 
for  our  understanding  of  the  progress  of  man  that 
we  ought  to  look  somewhat  closely  into  it.  By 
what  means  is  it  that  the  religion  of  Christ,  as 
taught  by  the  missionary,  has  produced  the  mo- 
mentous eflPects  here  alleged?  We  have  already 
glanced  at  this  matter  in  connection  with  the 
spread  of  education.  But  we  must  in  this  place 
go  a  little  deeper  into  the  substance  of  the  prob- 
lem.    In    the  first   place,  the    Gospel  of  Christ, 

142 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

while  it  humbles  all  those  who  enter  into  its  teach- 
ing and  receive  its  spirit,  yet  confers  upon  them  a 
new  self-respect.  To  a  man  who  has  considered 
himself  little  more  than  the  mere  slave  of  a  chief 
or  has  lived  in  utter  ignorance  of  his  destiny, 
sleeping,  hunting  and  eating,  the  changes  wrought 
by  the  inflow  of  Christian  faith  have  the  force  of  a 
revolution.  What  must  it  mean  to  such  a 
man  to  receive  the  inward  consciousness  of  what 
Christians  call  eternal  life,  of  sonship  towards  God? 
And  what  must  it  mean  to  him  to  see  and  feel  the 
brotherhood  that  connects  him  with  the  white  mis- 
sionary and  all  whom  he  represents?  He  stands 
now  in  a  new  world,  in  relations  to  God  which 
awaken  in  him  the  hope  of  a  new  and  glorious  des- 
tiny, in  relations  to  man  which  awaken  a  new 
sense  of  humanity.  This  naturally  creates  a  no- 
bler spirit.  As  a  larger  outlook  thus  gained  digni- 
fies all  the  personal  habits  and  ways  of  every  man 
so  affected,  the  action  of  the  Gospel  through  them 
upon  the  social  civilization  must  be  very  evident. 
A  sense  of  decency  is  awakened  with  that  new  con- 
sciousness, and  desire  for  ampler  surroundings  in 
what  the  native  begins  to  call  his  home;  his  ideas 
of  comfort  become  refined;  his  whole  life  rapidly 
assumes  something  of  the  aspects  of  civilization. 

This  point  has  been  well  illustrated  by  Dr. 
Lindley,  a  welhknown  missionary  among  the  Zu- 
lus: "The  first  evidence  of  coming  to  Christ 
"among  the  Zulus  was  the  sense  of  comparative 
"  nakedness.  A  man,  for  instance  goes  to  mission 
"  premises,  and  for  some  small  article  which  he  bar- 

143 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

*'  ters  in  trade  obtains  a  common  calico  shirt,  worth 
"  from  fivepence  to  sixpence.  Then  putting  that 
"  on,  he  comes  the  next  day  for  a  pair  of  common 
"  duck  pants,  costing  about  the  same  amount.  He 
"  cannot  have  comfort  of  that  shirt  without  some- 
"  thing  to  cover  his  nether  extremities.  Then  the 
"  next  day  he  goes  back,  and  he  wants  a  threedeg- 
"ged  stool,  such  as  those  on  which,  when  we  were 
"boys,  perhaps  we  used  to  milk  the  cows;  for  he 
"  must  not  sit  on  the  ground  any  more  and  soil  his 
"pants.  Now,  when  that  man  gets  that  calico 
"  shirt  and  those  duck  pants  on,  and  he  sits  on  that 
"  stool  nine  inches  high  he  is  about  nine  thousand 
"miles  above  all  the  heathen  around  about  him.  "  ^ 
Not  only  so,  the  Spirit  of  Christ  has  been  said 
from  the  beginning  to  act  directly  upon  moral 
character,  and  illustrations  literally  teem  through- 
out all  missionary  reports  from  all  parts  of  the 
world,  regarding  the  immediate  transformation  of 
character,  which  begins  as  soon  as  the  sway  of 
Christ  is  acknowledged  by  the  conscience  and 
affections  of  even  the  most  degraded  man.  Most 
thrilling,  for  example,  is  the  story  of  the  Canadian 
Indian  whose  heart  burned  within  him  to  avenge 
the  murder  of  his  son  by  a  trusted  companion. 
He  heard  a  missionary  preach  on  the  words  of 
Jesus:  "Father  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do.  "  The  Gospel  had  taken  hold  of  his 
heart  and  when  he  heard  the  direct  application 
of  this  passage  made  to  himself,  — "if  you  would 


»  L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I,  p.  182. 

144 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

be  a  Christian,  you  must  be  Christ^like.  He  for- 
gave and  prayed  for  His  murderers;  and  to  be  Hke 
Him  you  must  forgive  even  the  man  who  has  done 
you  the  greatest  harm," — the  lesson  went  home. 
The  chief  actually  had  the  manhood  and  the  cour- 
age to  say,  when  the  opportunity  for  vengeance 
came  and  the  murderer  was  in  his  power:  "As  I 
wish  Christ  to  forgive  me,  so  I  forgive  you.  "  Who 
can  measure  the  cost  of  that  action  to  that  man? 
It  was  a  great  sacrifice  when  he  threw  away  that 
opportunity  for  that  reason,  and  thus  broke  with 
the  traditions  of  his  tribe,  with  the  habits  of  his 
own*  lifetime,  quelled  the  turbulent  impulses  of 
his  heart  and  introduced  not  only  into  his  own  con- 
duct, but  into  the  life  of  the  tribe  this  vision  of  a 
higher  and  nobler  spirit.  It  is  indeed  by  sacrifices 
like  this,  by  countless  acts  of  self-control  and  self= 
conquest,  that  morality  spreads  and  civilization  of 
the  higher  type  becomes  possible.  We  are  told 
that  never  again  did  this  man  go  on  the  war-path; 
and  from  that  one  fact  we  see  how,  for  him,  one  act 
of  renunciation  in  regard  to  one  sinful  practice, 
flooded  with  light  whole  tracts  of  tribal  customs 
which  hitherto  had  seemed  both  right  and  natural. 
So  again  is  it  that  the  Christian  religion  has  ever 
tended  rapidly  to  carry  men  past  the  lower  stages 
of  progress,  for  it  has  blotted  out  by  a  clear  and 
awful  revelation  entire  classes  of  evil  traditions 
and  degrading  habits. 

Or  from  another  region  let  us  take  another  ex- 
ample.    Mr.  J.  G.   Paton  lonely  and  sick  in   the 
Island  of  Tanna  can  only  depend  upon  the  assist- 
145 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ance  of  two  people,  a  man  and  his  wife,  who  had 
not  long  before  this  practised  cannibalism.  Yet 
of  him  Paton  writes:  "  Any  trust,  however  sacred  or 
"valuable,  could  be  absolutely  reposed  in  him; 
"  and  in  trial  or  danger  I  was  often  refreshed  by 
"  that  old  teacher's  prayers,  as  I  used  to  be  by  the 
"  prayers  of  my  saintly  father  in  my  childhood's 
''home.  No  white  man  could  have  been  a  more 
"valuable  helper  to  me  in  my  perilous  circum- 
"  stances,  and  no  person,  white  or  black,  could 
"have  shown  more  fearless  and  chivalrous  devo- 
"tion."^ 

Again  take  an  example  from  yet  another  portion 
of  the  missionary  field:  A  certain  reformer  in 
Japan  was  foully  assassinated.  He  had  a  relative 
who  became  a  Christian  and  ultimately,  a  native 
pastor.  Many  years  after  the  death  of  his  brother 
he  was  celebrating  the  Lord's  Supper,  when  an 
old  man  got  up  and  said,  "  I  am  one  of  those  who 
wounded  that  man  twenty=five  years  ago  and  I 
confess  my  share  in  the  crime."  The  reply  of  the 
pastor  was,  "  By  all  the  ancient  customs  of  Japan  I 
am  bound  to  avenge  that  blood=feud  by  plunging 
my  dagger  into  the  throat  of  the  man  who  was  the 
murderer  of  my  relative;  but  Christ's  blood  recon- 
ciles all  blood^feuds,  and  in  Christ's  name  I  wish 
to  extend  to  this  brother  the  right  hand  of  fellow- 
ship." ' 

Not  only  do  missionaries  see  and  therefore  be- 


J.  G.  Paton."  p.  173. 

'Japan,  Its  People  and  Missions,"  by  Jessie  Page.  p.  72, 
146 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

lieve  in  the  remarkable  ethical  changes  wrought 
by  the  power  of  their  religion;  the  natives  them- 
selves are  quick  to  mark  the  facts.  A  story,  for 
example,  is  told  of  a  bank  officer  in  Japan,  who 
came  to  the  missionary  in  utter  despair  over  the 
fact,  that  the  young  Japanese  who  were  employed 
in  a  national  bank  were  proving  themselves  utterly 
untrustworthy.  They  were  very  clever  at  their 
work  and  made  excellent  cashiers,  tellers  and  book- 
keepers and  clerks;  but  they  were  thoroughly  dis- 
honest and  those  who  were  in  authority  could  see 
no  way  of  raising  up  a  race  of  honest  bank  clerks. 
This  bank  officer  admitted  that  he  did  not  believe 
in  any  religion  whatsoever.  He  claimed  that  the 
Japanese  intellect  was  of  too  philosophical  a  nature 
to  accept  the  Jewish  myth  called  Christianity. 
"  But,  "  he  said,  "  your  religion  does  something  that 
"our  religion  cannot  do;  it  makes  men  honest. 
*'Now  we  wish  our  employes  to  be  carefully  in- 
"  structed  in  these  principles,  so  that  they  may 
"  discarge  their  duties  with  integrity."  ^ 

Dr  Post,  the  great  Medical  Missionary  of  Syria, 
narrates  the  following  interesting  incident.^  Many 
years  ago  a  Governor  General  in  Syria  dismissed 
his  staff  of  native  physicians  for  incompetency  and 
corruption.  He  applied  at  the  College  at  Beirut 
for  a  corps  of  its  graduates,  and  in  doing  so  he  said 
"  It  is  not  merely  because  of  their  superior  scien- 


^  Dr.  Maclay's,  "A  budget  of  letters  from  Japan;"  page 
216,  quoted  by  Rev.  John  Liggins,  in  "The  Great  Value  and 
Success  of  Foreign  Missions. " 

2  In  "  Missions  at  Home  and  Abroad^"  p.  846. 
147 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

tific  attainments,  but  because  I  have  confidence 
in  their  moral  character  that  I  choose  my  staff 
from  them. " 

The  work  of  the  missionary,  when  he  acts  as  an 
agent  of  civilization,  depends  for  method  upon 
the  kind  and  degree  of  civilization  which  he  finds 
in  the  scene  of  his  labors.  For  example,  when  the 
early  missionaries  first  began  work  in  the  cannibal 
islands  of  the  South  Seas,  amongst  people  who 
were  extremely  ignorant  as  well  as  extremely  sav- 
age, whose  social  life  possessed  only  the  rudiments 
of  organization,  their  work  as  civilizers  would  be 
quite  direct  and  open.  They  not  only  had  to  in- 
stil the  elements  of  religious  faith  into  the  minds 
of  the  natives,  but  begin  immediately  thereafter  to 
teach  them  the  simpler  arts.  Those  whom  they 
employed  as  servants  and  helpers  in  building  their 
houses,  making  their  own  furniture,  tilling  their 
own  gardens,  became  teachers  of  others.  Ex- 
amples of  this  literally  abound  in  every  direc- 
tion. The  following  passage  is  typical.  It  de- 
scribes the  state  of  matters  which  Bishop  Selwyn 
found  in  a  certain  part  of  New  Zealand  on  his  first 
tour  of  inspection.  "  Nor  was  it  religion  only  which 
had  been  taught  to  this  promising  race — agricul- 
ture also  and  the  arts  of  civilized  life  had  long  ago 
been  introduced.  So  long  ago  as  1830,  the  station 
at  Waimate  had  made  itself  independent  of  New 
South  Wales  for  its  supplies  of  provisions.  More 
than  fifty  thousand  bricks  were  made;  seven  hun- 
dred thousand  feet  of  timber  were  felled;  three 
wooden   houses  were    erected,    with    stabling   for 

148 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

twelve  or  fourteen  horses;  eight  or  ten  cottages 
were  built,  and  ultimately  a  spacious  chapel, 
plows  and  harrows  were  constructed;  and  roads 
were  cut  through  the  dense  forests;  while  January 
8,  1835,  was  made  forever  memorable  by  the  intro- 
duction of  a  printing-press,  to  be  worked  by  a  na- 
tive assistant."  Can  we  wonder  that  Charles  Dar- 
win wrote  of  this  field:  "  I  took  leave  of  the  New 
Zealand  missionaries  with  feelings  of  high  respect 
for  their  useful  and  upright  characters.  .  .  The 
march  of  improvement  consequent  on  the  intro- 
duction of  Christianity,  throughout  the  South  Sea 
probably  stands  by  itself  in  the  record  of  history."^ 

The  missionary  has  often  been  in  a  position  to 
advise  both  the  chiefs  and  the  people  as  to  many 
matters  connected  with  the  tribal  life.  Their  evil 
customs  he  has  openly  rebuked,  their  cruelties  and 
ignorance  and  lawlessness  he  has  sought  to  remove 
by  the  establishment  of  some  rational  system  of 
legislation  and  administration. 

One  only  needs  to  read  narratives  of  the  work 
done  in  Hawaii,  in  Fiji  and  in  New  Guinea  to  see 
that  in  such  cases  the  missionary  has  acted  almost 
as  a  chief  whose  moral  authority  and  influence  was 
practically  supreme  in  the  tribe.  It  is  one  of  the 
sublime  spectacles  of  this  century,  one  of  the  most 
remarkable  signs  of  progress  within  the  Chris- 
tian Church  itself,  that  in  all  such  cases  Protestant 
missionaries  have  consistently  striven  to  establish 
the  power  of  others;  they  have  not  even  been  tempt- 


^  "  Life  of  G.  A.  Selwyn,"  by  Canon  Curteis,  pp.   69,  70. 
149 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ed  to  assume  the  reins  of  power,  when  such  a  step 
would  have  been  attended  with  no  danger  or  dif- 
ficulty and  would  have  seemed  even  to  the  leaders 
of  the  Church  in  earlier  ages  to  give  to  the  cause 
of  Christianity  a  great  opportunity  of  obtaining 
sway  amongst  the  natives.  The  missionaries, 
I  say,  have  without  exception  avoided  a  step 
which  the  whole  church  now  sees  would  have 
proved  disastrous  to  the  truest  interests  of  the 
Gospel.  So  much  at  any  rate  has  been  learned 
from  the  experience  of  Europe  regarding  the  rela- 
tions of  Church  and  State. 

When  we  go  amongst  people  who  are  found  in 
a  somewhat  better  condition  as  to  organization 
and  habits  of  life,  as,  for  example,  many  of  the 
tribes  in  South  Africa  and  the  remarkable  Hova 
tribe  of  Madagascar,  we  find  that  the  influence 
of  the  missionary,  though  obvious  and  powerful,  is 
yet  exercised  less  directly  than  in  the  former  cases. 
Here  the  advice  given  and  personal  influence  ex- 
erted are  more  private  and  personal,  though  con- 
ferences of  a  more  or  less  formal  nature  with  the 
chief  or  king  and  his  representatives  upon  public 
affairs  may  sometimes  take  place.  Here  also  the 
presence  of  the  missionary  has  resulted  in  the 
molding  of  the  tribal  character  and  policy  in  many 
and  most  remarkable  ways.  In  fact  as  regards 
Madagascar,  it  may  be  said  that  the  extraordinary 
strides  which  were  taken  during  the  last  thirty 
years  towards  civilized  methods  of  government  and 
improved  moral  conditions,  were  the  direct  outcome 
of  the  counsel  and  guidance  given  at  many  critical 

150 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

points  to  the  king  or  queen  and  his  or  her  advisers 
by  the  heralds  of  the  Christian  religion. 

When  we  come  to  observe  the  influence  of  mis- 
sions upon  civilization  in  the  ancient  empires  of 
the  East,  we  find  a  different  state  of  matters.  In 
Japan  and  India  and  China  the  missionary  enters 
into  the  midst  of  civilizations  possessed  of  digni- 
fied and  ancient  histories.  He  cannot  approach 
rulers  and  administrators  with  the  same  simplicity 
and  directness  as  among  the  simpler  tribes  to 
which  we  have  already  referred.  Here  everything 
is  more  imposing,  more  elaborate,  more  formal. 
Conservatism  of  the  most  unyielding  kind  has 
settled  its  dark  shadows  over  the  land.  More- 
over, ancient  and  native  religions  have  saturated 
the  whole  system  of  life  with  their  influence. 
The  worship  of  gods,  the  observance  of  religious 
ceremonials  are  bound  up  with  almost  every 
act  of  daily  life  and  with  every  institution  in  society. 
The  attempts  of  the  missionary  to  procure  reforma- 
tions where  customs  are  most  cruel  or  most  abomi- 
nable are  just  as  hopeless  in  those  lands  as  if  an  ob- 
scure minister  from  an  obscure  village  were  to  walk 
into  the  House  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  or  the 
House  of  Commons,  in  London,  and  demand  a 
change  in  the  vital  policy  of  the  American  or  Brit- 
ish governments.  And  yet  it  remains  to  be  said, 
that  in  these  very  lands  the  missionary  forces  are 
exerting  an  almost  incalculable  influence.  Many 
of  the  leading  rulers  of  great  Indian  provinces 
have  borne  witness  to  the  fact  that  the  missiona- 
ries' influence  has  done  most  to  secure  the  remark- 

151 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

able  changes  which  have  taken  place  in  regard  to 
many  Indian  customs  and  religious  observances. 
The  old  East  India  Company  government  lived  in 
such  dread  of  rebellions  that  they  weakly  tolerated 
and  even  at  last  shamefully  participated  in  some 
of  the  worst  of  these  customs.  And  early  in  the 
missionary  movement,  that  which  they  feared  most 
was,  lest  the  missionaries  should  seek  to  interfere 
with  what  they  considered  fundamental  native  in- 
stitutions. Nevertheless  the  missionaries  speedily 
gave  voice  to  their  judgment  on  these  things. 
Henry  Martyn  and  William  Carey  burned  in  heart 
over  the  sufferings  and  the  shame  imposed  contin- 
ually upon  thousands  of  their  fellow  beings  in 
India  by  these  fearful  heathen  institutions.  And, 
when  the  time  came,  when  the  missionary  influ- 
ence had  grown  powerful  enough,  and  when  above 
all  amongst  the  rulers  themselves  there  began  to 
appear  men  of  noble  Christian  character  and  lofty 
ideals,  the  work  of  moralizing  this  ancient  civili- 
zation began.  Some  of  the  results  have  been 
summed  up  in  the  following  striking  manner  by 
Canon  Hole: 

"Seventy  years  ago,  (I  quote  from  a  statement 
"published  in  India,  in  the  Indicm  Watchman,) 
"  the  fires  of  Suttee  were  publicly  blazing  in  the 
"  Presidency  towns  of  Madras,  Bombay  and  Cal- 
"  cutta,  and  all  over  India,  the  fires  of  Suttee,  in 
"  which  the  screaming  and  struggling  widow,  in 
"  many  cases  herself  a  mere  child,  was  bound  to 
"the  body  of  her  husband;  and  with  him  burned 
"  to  ashes.     Seventy  years  ago  young  infants  were 

152 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

'  publicly  thrown  into  the  Ganges,  as  sacrifices  to 
'  the  god  of  the  river.  Seventy  years  ago  young 
'  men  and  maidens,  decked  with  flowers,  were  slain 
'  in  Hindoo  temples  before  the  hideous  idol  of  the 
'  goddess  Kali,  or  hacked  to  pieces  at  the  Meras, 
'  that  their  quivering  flesh  might  be  given  to  pro- 
'  pitiate  the  god  of  the  soil.  Seventy  years  ago  the 
'  cars  of  Juggernaut  were  rolling  over  India,  crush- 
'  ing  hundreds  of  human  victims  annually  beneath 
'  their  wheels.  Seventy  years  ago  lepers  were 
'  burned  alive,  devotees  publicly  starved  them- 
'  selves  to  death,  children  brought  their  parents  to 
'  the  bank  of  the  Ganges  and  hastened  their  death 
'  by  filling  their  mouths  with  the  sand  and  the 
'  water  of  the  so-called  sacred  river.  Seventy 
'  years  ago  the  swinging  festival  attracted  thou- 
'  sands  to  see  the  poor  writhing  wretches,  with 
'  iron  hooks  thrust  through  the  muscles  of  their 
'  backs,  swinging  in    mid^air   in   honor   of   their 

•  gods.  For  these  scenes,  which  disgraced  India 
'  seventy  years  ago,  we  may  now  look  in  vain. 
'  And  need  I  remind  you  that  every  one  of  these 

*  changes  for  the  better  is  due  directly  or  indi- 
'  rectly  to  missionary  enterprise,  and  the  spirit  of 
'  Christianity?  It  was  Christian  missionaries,  and 
'  those  who  supported  them,  who  proclaimed  and 
'  denounced  these  tremendous  evils.  Branded  as 
'  fanatics  and  satirized  as  fools,  they  ceased  not 
'  until  one  by  one  these  hideous  hallucinations 
'  were  suppressed."  ^ 


*  Quoted  in  "The  Great  Value  and  Success  of  Foreign  Mis- 
sions," by  Rev.  J.  Liggins,  pp.  90,  91. 

153 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

To  turn  to  Japan  again  for  one  moment,  we  find 
that  even  the  Japanese  recognize  the  great  influ- 
ence exerted  by  the  Christian  religion  upon  the  ex- 
traordinary developments  which  have  taken  place 
in  that  country  during  the  last  century.  A  lead- 
ing citizen  of  Tokyo  said  in  an  address,  that  the 
younger  men  did  not  know  what  older  Japan  was, 
and  that  practically  the  Christian  missionaries  had 
"saved  the  Empire."  One  of  the  leading  mis- 
sionaries of  that  land  (Mr.  S.  L.  Gulick)  has  said: 
"  The  Kingdom  of  God  is  coming  in  Japan  as  in 
"  no  other  non^Christian  land.  The  national  ideas 
"as  to  government,  education,  morality,  justice, 
"  law  and  the  family  have  become  in  fact  largely 
"  Christian." 

The  difficulties  of  direct  influence  are  of  course 
greater  in  China  than  in  any  other  land;  for  there 
the  government  remains  stolidly  indifferent 
and  separate  from  missions.  The  missionaries  are 
looked  down  upon  as  of  the  poor  and  the  despised 
classes.  It  is  only  through  slow  processes,  espe- 
cially perhaps  through  the  translated  Bible  and 
medical  missionaries,  that  access  is  being  obtained 
to  the  higher  classes  of  Chinese  society.  It  is  too 
early  yet  to  say  in  what  direction  that  ancient  civi- 
lization will  be  molded  by  the  evangelical  spirit. 
It  is  evident  that  in  all  such  cases  the  missionary 
can  only  modify  the  conditions  of  civilization 
through  the  Christian  literature  which  is  in  circu- 
lation and  through  the  work  of  teaching  and  influ- 
encing one  individual  after  another.  Of  course 
through  the  Christian  literature  he  can  secure  the 

154: 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

presentation  of  the  ideals  of  the  Christian  spirit 
to  a  very  large  and  ever  increasing  circle  of  read- 
ers. The  subtle  influence  of  truth  when  she 
shines  with  her  own  peerless  light  on  the  dark  cus- 
toms of  heathendom,  it  is  beyond  our  power  to  in- 
dicate or  tabulate.  We  may  say  this  much,  how- 
ever, that  wherever  the  Christian  religion  is  being 
learned  from  her  own  literatures,  there  the  intrin- 
sic reality  and  beauty  of  her  ideals  will  begin  to 
affect  the  heart  and  imagination,  the  mind  and  the 
conscience  of  every  heathen  reader.  Of  course 
the  most  powerful  civilizing  influence  which  in 
such  lands  the  missionary  exercises,  is  through  the 
direct  molding  of  the  character  of  individuals. 
Wherever  Christian  Churches  are  formed  under 
faithful  oversight,  and  the  members  manifest  even 
some  lineaments  of  the  character  of  Christ,  sur- 
rounding society  cannot  possibly  remain  unaffected. 
The  natural  conscience  of  man  is  aroused  to  sen- 
sitiveness, when  neighbors  manifest  the  chief 
characteristics  of  an  ideal  man. 

One  fact  is  of  great  importance.  While  the  evi- 
dence for  it  is  drawn  from  India  primarily,  one 
can,  after  the  experience  of  Europe  during  these 
eighteen  hundred  years,  prophesy  with  great  confi- 
dence, that  the  same  phenomena  will  appear  in 
China  and  Japan.  In  India  there  are  vast  portions 
of  population  consisting  of  poor  and,  as  we  say,  of 
primitive  peoples.  They  have  practically  no  edu- 
cation, they  are  of  no  caste  or  of  very  low  caste. 
They  are  not  the  people  to  whom  a  government 
would  look  hopefully  or  from  whom  aristocratic 

155 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Brahmins  would  expect  much.  But  if  all  signs 
fail  not,  the  redemption  of  India  may  be  reached 
through  these  people.  For  already  not  only  have 
many  hill4ribes  received  the  Christian  religion  and 
entered  upon  careers  of  great  promise,  but  the  in- 
habitants of  the  vast  plains  in  South  Central  India 
show  the  same  eagerness  to  receive  the  Gospel, 
and  the  Gospel  is  manifesting  its  ancient  ennobling 
and  civilizing  power  amongst  them.  The  mission- 
aries complain  bitterly  that  they  have  not  money 
wherewith  to  pay  for  the  teachers  and  evangelists 
who  are  demanded  by  these  peoples.  Sometimes 
a  whole  village  is  ready  to  cast  away  its  idols,  turn 
its  temple  into  a  school,  receive  a  Christian  teacher 
and  avow  the  discipleship  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
missionaries  have  actually  to  restrain  their  ardor 
with  sad  hearts,  for  lack  of  funds.  But  they  turn 
their  eyes  with  brighter  thoughts  to  the  villages 
where  already  work  has  been  begun;  for  there  they 
see  the  abundant  signs  of  a  transformation  of 
character  and  life  which  is  so  surprising  that  the 
members  of  the  higher  castes  are  filled  with  as- 
tonishment and  even  with  envy  at  the  changes  which 
are  visible.  These  people  have  a  new  look,  the 
cringing  fear  of  their  social  superiors  has  disappear 
ed;  nor  has  it  given  place  to  insolence,  but  to  the 
dignity  of  that  self^^respect  which  Christianity  be- 
stows. They  become  industrious,  intelligent  and 
full  of  enterprise.  They  build  better  houses,  do 
better  work,  make  more  money.  Some  of  them  be- 
come teachers  and  preachers.  In  fact  the  lowest 
classes  of  India  have  received  that  impulse  which. 

m 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

will  carry  them  to  the  top  of  the  social  scale  and  it 
comes  from  their  faith  in  Christ  and  their  new 
spiritual  experience. 

One  of  the  elements  which  must  be  considered 
in  estimating  the  influence  of  the  missionary  is  the 
impression  universally  made  by  his  personal  charac- 
ter. The  natives  throughout  the  world  very  speed- 
ily learn  to  distrust  the  average  European  trader 
and  traveler.  ^  But  as  steadily  as  this  revelation  of 
character  is  made,  the  trustworthiness  of  the  mission- 
ary becomes  more  and  more  apparent.  ^      His  word 

^  Sir  William  Hunter,  the  distinguished  Indian  Administra- 
tor, says:  "The  confidence  of  the  people  of  India  in  the 
purity  and  unselfishness  of  the  motives  of  the  mission- 
aries is  complete,  and  neither  the  officials  nor  any  other  class 
of  foreign  residents  is  held  in  so  much  esteem  as  they  are." 

2  Another  instance  of  the  same  trust  which  the  missionaries 
awaken  in  the  hearts  of  heathen  people  is  to  be  found  in  the 
strange  act  of  a  South  African  chief,  Sekhome  by  name.  He 
had  for  long  been  stirring  up  strife  amongst  his  people,  seek- 
ing to  drive  outthe  missionary,  persecuting  his  ownsonswho 
were  earnest  Christians,  and  had  even  created  a  civil  war  by  at- 
tacking the  latter  and  the  Christian  party  who  sympathized 
with  them.  Yet  when  all  his  vile  machinations  had  failed  and  he 
himself  become  a  fugitive,  fearing  vengance,  it  was  to  the 
missionary  he  fled.  On  that  evening  when  he  left  his  own 
royal  courtyard  and  fled  to  the  rocks  and  the  caves,  "  a  solitary 
figure  "  we  are  told  by  the  missionary  "  was  observed  descend- 
ing the  mountain  near  to  my  house.  It  was  Sekhome.  He 
could  no  longer  trust  his  own  people;  he  knew  that  he  could 
still  trust  the  missionary.  He  seemed  relieved  when  he  entered 
the  house.  I  had  now  a  glorious  opportunity  of  rewarding 
good  for  evil,  and  took  advantage  of  it."  "  Ten  Years  North 
of  the  Orange  River  "  by  John  Mackenzie,  pp.  449  ff, 
15T 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

can  be  depended  upon;  his  kindness  is  untiring;  his 
fairness  in  matters  of  dispute  is  unquestioned;  his 
own  unselfishness  in  matters  of  business  and  where 
money  is  concerned,  after  the  first  suspicions  have 
passed  away,  becomes  visible  to  all  and  a  matter  of 
public  observation  and  wonder.  Alike  among  the 
older  civilizations  of  the  East  and  the  poor  tribes  of 
Africa  or  the  South  Seas  this  faith  in  the  mission- 
ary is  a  fact  notorious  and  indisputable.  He  lives 
what  his  religion  teaches.  On  the  whole,  he  is 
seen  to  manifest  the  outlines  of  the  character  of 
Jesus  Christ  and  this  gives  an  enormous  power  to 
his  teaching  and  his  exhortations. 

Yet  another  and  perhaps  the  steadiest  and  most 
powerful  of  all  single  instruments  of  civilization 
that  can  be  named  is  the  missionary  home.  The 
home  life  is  the  fountain  head  of  the  character  of 
a  people.  The  relations  that  exist  there  give  char- 
acter and  form  to  all  other  relations  in  the  social 
system.  Where  mutual  trust  and  love  and  honor 
exist  among  the  members  of  the  homes  of  a  peo- 
ple, these  qualities  will  inevitably  stream  out,  like 
light  from  a  center  of  light,  upon  the  surrounding 
system.  It  is  the  evidence  of  one  who  has  had 
unsurpassed  opportunity  of  observation  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world,  "  that  one  Christian  mis- 
sionary home,  with  a  Christian  wife,  does  more  to 
humanize,  elevate  and  evangelize  a  race  of  people 
than  twenty  celibate  men."^  It  is  a  perception 
of  this  fact  that  led,  for  example,  a  Japanese  mis- 


Bev,  Wardlaw  Thompson.     L.  M.  C.  Vol.  I,  p.  409. 
X58 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

sionary  (Eev.  C.  A.  Clark)  to  open  his  house,  in- 
vite visitors  from  the  surrounding  country  and  show 
them  the  whole  of  the  interior  arrangements,  in  x^ar- 
lor  and  kitchen;  explain  to  them  the  uses  of  the 
children's  room,  the  stoves  and  the  wire  mat- 
tress which  were  chief  curiosities;  explain  to 
them  also  the  reasons  for  the  absence  of  the  god- 
shelf,  which  they  immediately  missed.  In  two 
years  this  missionary  received  into  his  home  no 
less  than  12,000  visitors.  He  made  his  house  the 
center  of  a  loaning  library  and  reading-room.  All 
this  was  done  with  the  simple  purpose  of  giving  the 
Japanese  an  opportunity  for  seeing  and  feeling 
something  of  the  characteristics  of  a  Christian 
home.  How  much,  even  in  Japan,  this  special  in- 
fluence is  needed,  may  be  gathered  from  such  facts 
as  the  following:  The  Japanese  home  is  said  to 
consist  of  "  father,  mother,  concubines,  and  various 
sorts  of  children,  who  are  born  of  the  wife  or  of  the 
concubines,  or  have  been  adopted  into  the  family. 
Filial  piety,  which  no  doubt  exists  and  is  insisted 
upon,  is  distorted  into  a  horrible  outrage  upon 
humanity,  and  especially  on  womanhood.  The 
father  may  always  command  the  daughter  to  sell 
herself  into  a  life  of  shame  to  pay  his  debts  and 
she  incurs  merit  by  this  act  of  sacrifice."  ^ 

In  China,*  where  annually  no  less  than  two  hun- 
dred thousand  infants  are  put  to  death,  the  influ- 
ence of  Christianity  on  the  home  life  is  transform- 


i"The  Religions  of   Japan"  by  W.  E.  Griffis,  D.  D.,  pp. 
122-123. 

159 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ing  many  of  the  conditions  which  form  the  worst 
features  of  the  Chinese  civilization.  Chinese 
Christian  homes  are  verily  fountains  of  most  bless- 
ed influence  upon  the  community.  A  well-known 
lady  missionary  from  China  has  said:  *'The 
women  in  these  Christian  homes  become  true,  de- 
voted and  earnest  Christians.  .  .  .  It  is  a  bless- 
ed thing  to  go  into  one  of  these  homes,  where 
there  is  a  Christian  mother,  and  see  the  stimula- 
ting influence  which  she  exerts,  compared  to  the 
misery  of  the  home  where  the  heathen  mother  ex- 
erts her  influence."  ^ 

In  India  the  same  momentous  results  are  follow- 
ing the  exertions  which  are  being  made  by  all 
missionary  societies,  to  establish  and  extend  Zen- 
ana work.  Leading  Indians  see  the  significance 
of  this.  They  feel  that  through  the  home  the  mis- 
sionary is  conquering  India.  And  yet,  because 
the  women  medical  missionaries  bring  their  skill 
to  bear  upon  the  suffering  and  disease  of  the  wom- 
en in  their  homes,  they  are  unwilling  to  shut  the 
door  against  them.  Some  of  the  more  far^^sighted 
of  the  educated  Hindoos  have  openly  acknowledged 
that  through  their  influence  upon  the  home  life 
these  Christian  missionaries  have  at  last  captured 
the  stronghold  of  the  ancient  Indian  faiths  and  civ- 
ilization. Travelers,  like  Miss  Gord6n  Cumming, 
who  have  gone  to  the  South  Seas  and  watched 
the  manner  of  life  of  the  natives  in  islands, 
like  Fiji,  which  have  been  most  profoundly  affect- 


1  Mrs.  Edge.  L.  M.  C.  Vol.  I,  p.  114. 
160 


The  Missionary  and  Civilization 

ed  by  Christianity,  express  their  amazement  at  the 
transformation  of  the  home  life.  The  houses  have 
more  than  one  room;  the  father  and  mother  are 
faithful  to  one  another,  train  their  children  in  the 
Christian  faith,  maintain  daily  family  worship, 
filling  the  villages  at  even=tide  with  songs  of  praise. 
And  these  peojDle  were,  many  of  them,  cannibals 
not  many  years  ago.  ^ 

The  consideration  of  the  influence  exerted  by 
the  missionary  home  upon  native  peoples  inevi- 
tably suggests  a  subject  to  which  I  can  only  briefly 
refer,  but  one  which  for  the  future  of  the  race  is 
of  immeasurable  importance,  I  mean  the  status  of 
woman.  In  no  heathen  land  does  woman  receive 
a  modicum  of  the  respect  and  honor  which  we  see 
to  be  her  rightful  due.  The  degradation  of  wom- 
ankind is  one  of  the  darkest  accompaniments  of 
heathenism  and  one  of  the  strongest  barriers 
against  the  progress  of  the  race.  The  elevation  of 
the  home  life  means,  first  and  last,  the  elevation 
of  woman.  As  she  receives  her  due  place  in  the 
thought  and  affection  of  her  husband  and  sons  and 
brothers,  her  own  nature  is  ennobled;  the  deeper 
and  finer  instincts  of  her  soul  are  awakened  to 
dominate  her  life;  she  becomes  the  gracious  and 
purifying  influence  which  Christianity  has  made 
her  and  Christendom  now  finds  her  to  be, 

We  have  seen  in  this  chapter  the  chief  methods 
by  which  the  religion  of  Christ  is  molding  the  civ- 
ilization of  the  heathen  world.     We  have  seen  that 


1  Cf.  "At  Home  in  Fiji"  by  C.  F.  Gordon  Gumming. 
161 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

when  the  individual  becomes  converted  he  comes 
under  influences  which  begin  more  or  less  rapidly 
to  change  his  personal  habits  of  thought  and  life. 
The  lower  the  past  life  of  such  a  man,  the  more 
striking  are  the  results  immediately  following  his 
conversion.  We  have  seen  that  the  work  of  en- 
lightening, guiding,  strengthening  that  man  is 
carried  on  by  means  of  the  church  and  its  adjunct, 
the  school.  We  have  also  seen  that  as  soon  as  a 
few  people  have  been  gathered  together,  family  life 
assumes  a  higher  and  purer  tone,  and  from  that 
center  very  strong  influences  flow  out  upon  the 
surrounding  community.  The  great  work  of  civi- 
lizing the  world  is  thus  effected  hy  the  Church  of 
Christ  through  the  moralizing  of  the  individual 
and  the  family.  In  the  simpler  tribes  the  immedi- 
ate effect  is  to  create  new  personal  and  social  wants 
which  are  closely  allied  with  the  maintenance  of 
decency  and  comfort.  Amid  the  more  elaborate 
institutions  of  India  the  first  civil  effect  of  Chris- 
tianity has  been  seen  in  the  removal  of  various 
customs  which  seemed  to  be  deeply  rooted  in  the 
national  life,  but  which  were  with  comparative 
ease  eliminated  as  soon  as  the  light  of  a  higher 
conscience  shone  upon  them  and  condemned  them. 
The  further  modification  of  the  social  conditions 
in  those  Eastern  lands  must  necessarily  be  a  some- 
what slow  process.  But  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  each  decade  will  mark  a  steady  progress,  and 
that  the  most  potent  force  will  prove  to  be  the 
rapidly  increasing  Christian  community  with  its 
keener  conscience  and  its  loftier  ideals. 

162 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AND  OTHER  RELIGIONS. 

It  is  now  recognized,  practically  by  all  investiga- 
tors and  thinkers,  that  religion  is  universal.  No 
tribe  can  be  found  which  does  not  possess  a  relig- 
ion of  some  kind.  This  means  that  it  belongs  to 
human  nature,  both  as  we  know  it  now  and  so  far 
as  history  can  discover  its  past  operations,  to  be 
conscious  of  some  kind  of  connection  with  that 
which  is  called  the  superhuman  or  supernatural. 
This  implies,  of  course,  that  there  must  always  be 
some  point  of  connection  which  can  be  found 
between  the  crudest  forms  of  belief  and  Christian- 
ity. Were  it  not  for  this.  Christian  missions  would 
be  impossible.  If  the  preacher  of  Jesus  Christ 
could  not  find  some  instinct,  some  working  of  con- 
science, some  apprehension  of  the  mind,  some 
movement  of  the  imagination,  even  amongst  the 
lowest  races,  which  manifests  an  affinity  with  the 
highest  attainments  of  Christian  exi3erience,  he 
could  not  begin  his  work.  But  this  just  means 
that  if  a  race  so  utterly  destitute  could  be  discov- 
ered, it  would  be  one  that  is  forever  entirely  cut 
off  from  the  rest  of  mankind.  No  elevation  of 
such  a  people  could  possibly  take  place  in  any  di- 
rection. The  very  absence  of  the  possibility  of  a 
religion  would  relegate  them  to  a  separate  species. 

163 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

"  These  ideas,"  said  J.  G.  Paton  of  the  New  He- 
brides concerning  his  work  amongst  the  canni- 
bals, "had  to  be  woven  into  their  spiritual  con- 
sciousness, had  to  become  the  very  warp  and  woof 
of  their  religion.  But  it  could  be  done, — that  we 
believed, — because  they  were  men,  not  beasts."  ^ 

We  know  now  far  more  fully  than  in  any  earlier 
generation  the  characteristics  of  the  various  relig- 
ions throughout  the  world.  The  poorest  form  of 
fetichism  has  been  subjected  and  is  being  sub- 
jected to  close  scientific  scrutiny  by  men  of  the 
highest  scholarship  and  ability;  and,  needless  to 
say,  the  elaborate  and  higher  religions  of  the  East 
are  exercising  a  wonderful  fascination  upon  the 
minds  of  scholars  and  thinkers.  In  this  work  of 
investigating  the  actual  forms  of  belief  possessed 
by  the  natives,  the  grounds  of  those  beliefs  and 
their  effects  upon  the  morals  and  civilization  of 
the  people  who  hold  them,  the  missionaries  are,  as  a 
class,  supremely  interested  and  ceaselessly  diligent. 
It  is  true  that  we  every  now  and  again  hear  a  piece 
of  condescending  advice,  from  one  direction  or  an- 
other, suggesting  that  the  missionaries  should  study 
the  religions  of  the  people  to  whom  they  preach, 
and  should  try  to  employ  whatever  is  of  value  in 
those  religions,  making  these  points  of  contact  the 
starting=points  for  higher  instruction.  But  there 
surely  have  been  few  missionaries,  and  they  both 
foolish  in  mind  and  futile  in  labor,  who  have  ever 
needed  such  advice.     It  may  have  been  held  by  a 


J.  G.  Paton,*'  p.  121. 

164 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

few  people  in  the  early  history  of  the  missionary 
movement,  say  three-quarters  of  a  century  ago, 
that  the  light  of  Christianity  is  self=evident,  that 
the  missionary  needs  only  to  let  it  shine  through  his 
declarations  to  allow  him  the  joy  of  seeing  multi- 
tudes arise  and  accept  it.  But  those  who  held  this 
view  in  ignorance  must  have  speedily  found  it  im- 
possible. Since  the  day  when  Henry  Martyn 
thought  that  a  miracle  was  necessary  ere  a  Hindoo 
could  be  converted,  all  intelligent  supporters  of 
missions  and  all  missionaries  themselves  have  real- 
ized that  their  relation  to  the  religions  of  the 
heathen  world  is  much  more  intricate  and  intimate 
than  that  picture  would  suggest.  As  Sir  William 
Hunter  has  said:  "  We  no  longer  suppose  it  possible 
for  an  ignorant  and  zealous  man  to  go  forth  simply 
armed  by  his  own  desire  to  do  what  is  right  and 
state  the  truth;  we  no  longer  believe  it  possible 
for  that  man  to  succeed."  ^ 

It  may  not  be  too  bold  to  say  that  probably  the 
missionaries,  more  than  any  other  class  of  men,  re- 
joice over  every  feature  of  value  which  they  can 
discover  in  heathen  religions.  For,  every  element 
of  truth  which  these  contain,  every  form  of  sensi- 
tiveness to  the  higher  ethical  demands  and  relig- 
ious affirmations  of  Christianity  which  they  reveal, 
makes  it  easier  for  the  missionary  to  approach  the 
people,  makes  him  more  hopeful  of  seeing  his  own 
great  message  take  hold  and  do  its  work.  It  is  a 
welhknown   missionary    of    the   East    who    said: 


L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I.,  p.  14. 

165 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

"  These  delicious  glimmerings  of  light  we  do  find 
by  patient  search  in  the  religions  of  the  orient,  and 
in  the  existence  of  such  we  missionaries  who  have 
to  combat  those  systems  continually  rejoice.  We 
gladly  use  those  flashes  of  light  in  bringing  home 
the  truth  to  the  peoi^le,  as  did  Paul  at  Athens.  .  . 
But  we  sadly  recognize  how  utterly  inadequate  is 
that  light  to  lead  sinful  man  to  XDcace  with  God."  ^ 

The  missionary  believes  with  the  whole  Christian 
Church,  that  all  these  religions  are  about  to  be  dis- 
placed by  the  Christian  faith.  He  does  not  wish 
to  see  them  merely  destroyed;  for  the  mere  destruc- 
tion of  these  religions,  without  the  supply  of  what 
is  more  adequate,  would  be  only  deplorable.  That 
which  is  hoped  for  and  is  being  worked  for  with 
such  infinite  ardor,  self  sacrifice  and  hope  is  the 
substitution  of  the  Christian  religion  for  all  other 
forms  of  religion  whatsoever.  The  missionary  longs 
for  the  day  when  there  shall  be  placed  before  all  men 
the  one  severe  and  inevitable  alternative  between 
Christianity  and  an  irreligious  life.  Then  it  will 
not  be  possible  for  a  man  to  think  it  worth  while 
proving  that  he  has  any  other  positive  relation  to 
the  Unseen  and  the  Eternal  than  that  which  is  re- 
vealed and  granted  in  the  Gos^^el  of  Jesus  Christ. 

So  far  as  the  work  of  evangelizing  the  world  has 
gone,  various  efPects  have  been  produced  in  relation 
to  the  other  religions  of  the  world.  In  the  first 
place,  and  as  might  be  expected,  the  lower  forms  of 
religion  wholly  and  rapidly  disappear.      All  those 


^  Rev.  Dr.  Chamberlain,  "  The  Religions  of  the  Orient,"  p.  10. 
166 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

which  have  a  poor  intellectual  ground-work,  which 
have  had  less  of  the  ideal  in  them  and  which  have 
had  less  connection  with  the  ethical  life,  give  way 
at  once,  like  children's  sand  heaps  when  the  rising 
tide  washes  over  them.  The  earlier  missionaries  in 
the  South  Sea  Islands  were  not  only  rejoiced,  but 
utterly  amazed,  to  discover  with  what  ease  whole 
tribes  could  sometimes  be  persuaded  of  the  absurd- 
ity of  their  idolatrous  beliefs.  On  several  occasions, 
when  the  missionaries  sent  native  evangelists  in 
advance  of  them,  they  arrived  some  months  after- 
ward to  find  that  the  revolt  against  idolatry  had 
taken  place  merely  by  the  teaching  and  arguments 
of  these  evangelists.  It  was  a  comparatively  sim- 
ple matter  in  some  of  these  cases  to  j)rove  that  the 
idols  most  dreaded  had  no  power,  and  to  persuade 
the  leaders  of  the  tribe  to  have  done  with  a  religion 
based  on  such  worthless  conceptions. 

It  is  when  we  come  to  consider  the  relation  of 
Christianity  to  the  great  religions  of  the  East  that 
the  problem  assumes  some  complexity  and  the  dis- 
cussion possesses  great  importance.  Nowhere  are 
the  difficulties  of  this  contact  between  Christianity 
and  its  rivals  more  widely  felt,  more  carefully 
weighed,  than  in  India.  For,  as  has  been  said,  "  it 
is  the  peculiar  distinction  of  India  that  it  has  been 
the  theater  of  nearly  all  the  religions."  There  we 
have  at  any  rate  those  two  great  religions,  Hindu- 
ism, with  the  elements  of  Buddhism  which  it  con- 
tains, and  Mohammedanism;  while  in  Ceylon  we 
have  an  intelligent  and  aggresssive  Buddhism. 
These  religions   like   Christianity   profess    to   be 

167 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

founded,  first,  upon  historical  revelation  and,  sec- 
ond, upon  philosophical  conceptions.  Each  of  them 
is  able  to  point  to  events  in  the  distant  past  through 
which  they  assert  that  the  supreme  truth  regarding 
man  and  his  spiritual  relations  was  made  known. 
And  they  are  able  in  support  of  the  reality,  nature 
and  results  of  this  revelation  to  adduce  what  they 
consider  more  or  less  irrefragable  metaphysical 
principles.  These  facts  make  the  task  of  convic- 
tion very  much  more  difficult.  And  the  question 
which  many  persons  are  inclined  to  ask  is,  whether 
there  is  hope  that  these  religions  will  be  speed- 
ily displaced  by  the  Christian  faith?  This  half 
sceptical  wonder  has  in  recent  years  been  very  con- 
siderably increased  by  the  attempts  that  have  been 
made  in  Europe  and  America  to  rehabilitate  some 
of  these  oriental  religions.  Oriental  enthusiasts, 
theosophists  and  spiritualistic  cranks  have  com- 
bined, by  means  of  their  imagery  and  mysticism 
and  their  ethical  enthusiasm,  to  suffuse  over  the 
greatest  Asiatic  religions  a  glory  which  is  not 
their  own.  Constant  appeal  is  made  to  the  facts 
that,  in  a  sense,  many  of  these  are  elder  than  the 
Christian  religion,  have  secured  dominance  over 
the  minds  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  the  human 
race,  ^  and  contain  in  their  sacred  writings  a  very 
large  number  of  noble  and  inspiring  ethical  princi- 
ples and  exhortations. 


^  The  number  of  Buddhists  has  been  often  greatly  exagger- 
ated. "The  best  authorities  are  of  the  opinion  that  there  are 
not  more  than  one  hundred  millions  of  real  Buddhists  in  the 
world."     "  Buddhism.,"     By  Sir  M.  Monier=Williams.   p.  xv. 

168 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

Let  us  ask  ourselves  regarding  the  fitness  of  these 
religions  to  cope  with  Christianity  in  meeting  and 
satisfying  the  deepest  needs  of  men? 

And,  first,  looking  at  the  matter  from  the  purely 
religious   point  of  view,  the  following  statements 
seem  to  me  to  be  within  the  mark  and  easily  de- 
fensible.     Christianity    is   infinitely   superior    to 
Buddhism  in  that  the  latter  is  practically  atheistic 
or  agnostic,  while  the  Gospel  of  Christ  finds  its 
fountain  head  in  the  doctrine  of  a  living  and  per- 
sonal God.     No  people  have  been  long  content  with 
a  mere  negation  regarding  the  ultimate  Being  or 
Fact  which  is  the  ground  of  all  life  and,  therefore, 
the  object  of  all  hope.   Hence  we  find  that,  in  those 
regions  where  Buddhistic  teaching  has  exercised 
its  influence,  the  general  masses  of  the  people  have 
not  been  content  with  Buddha's  own  placid  nes- 
cience regarding  God. '     The  heart  of  man  reaches 
out  into  the  unseen,  feeling  after  that  which  is  per- 
sonal and,  judged  from  the  purely  religious  point  of 
view,  that  religion  would  seem  to  be  the  highest, 
the  last  in  the  order  of  evolution  and  the  fittest  to 
control  the  homage  of  mankind,  which  contains  the 
deepest  and  most  illuminative  affirmations  concern- 
ing a  supreme  and  personal  God. 

As  one  student  has  well  said  of  the  Buddhist  relig- 
ion: "  Its  ideal  is  to  empty  life  of  everything  active 
and  positive,  rather  than  to  concentrate  energy  on  a 

i«As  it  (Buddhism)  is  atheistic  in  its  origin,  it  very  soon 
becomes  infected  by  the  most  fantastic  mythology  and 
the  most  childish  superstitions."-Art.  "Religions,  m  En- 
cyclop.  Brit,  by  C.  P.  Tiele. 

169 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

strong  purpose.  It  does  not  train  the  affections  to 
virtuous  and  harmonious  action,  but  denies  to  them 
all  action  and  consigns  them  to  extinction.  This 
condemnation  it  has  incurred  by  parting  with  that 
highest  stimulus  to  human  virtue  and  endeavor, 
which  lies  in  the  belief  in  a  living  God."  ^  The 
pessimism  of  Buddha  is  not  a  feature  which  is 
made  prominent  by  the  people  who  recommend 
Buddhism  to  our  western  world.  But  it  was  cen- 
tral to  the  teaching  and  spirit  of  Buddha  himself. 
For  him,  conscious  existence  was  an  evil  so  dire 
and  painful  that  he  believed  religion  consisted  in 
the  prolonged  effort  to  escape  from  it.  This  could 
be  accomplished,  he  thought,  by  a  gradual  separa- 
tion of  self  from  all  passion,  from  all  self-exaltation, 
from  all  in  fact  that  would  nourish  the  desire  for 
personal  existence.  Hence  the  need  of  winning 
the  heart  from  all  lusts  of  the  flesh  and  preserving 
a  mind  that  is  meek  and  lowly.  The  end  thereof  is 
not  life,  but  the  loss  of  life.  For  that  purpose 
seek  pureness,  ensue  those  rare  virtues, — simply 
in  order  the  more  certainly  and  speedily  to  cease 
to  be.  That  is  the  soul  of  Buddhism,  its  strongest 
motive  and  its  loftiest  ambition.  Christianity 
will  displace  Buddhism,  because  the  latter  is  a  re- 
ligion "  having  no  hope  and  without  God  in  the 
world." 

Then,  in  the  next  place,  Christianity  is  superior 
to  Mohammedanism,  because  of  the  relations  which 
it  establishes  between  the  worshiper  and  the  living 


History  of  Religion  "  by  Professor  Menzies  D.  D.,  p.  379. 
i7n 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

God.  Mohammedanism,  though  it  arose  after  Chris- 
tianity and  owes  some  of  its  most  powerful  features 
to  Mohammed's  vague  acquaintance  with  the  Jew- 
ish and  Christian  religions,  yet  belongs  in  order  of 
religious  value  to  an  earlier  stage  of  development. 
It  is  strikingly  and  severely  monotheistic;  but  its 
Grod  is  one  whose  ethical  qualities  are  ill  defined, 
whose  personal  relations  to  the  worshiper  do  not  in- 
vite responsive  faith,  love  and  service.  The  wor- 
shiper feels  a  reverence  for  Allah,  but  at  a  great 
distance.  He  believes  in  the  protection  of  Allah,  but 
it  is  the  protection  of  merely  jjliysical  force  against 
foes.  As  to  the  inward  life  of  worship,  the  over- 
shadowing of  the  wings  of  an  infinite  and  watch 
ful  love,  which  is  characteristic  of  Christianity, 
Mohammedanism  knows  nothing. 

Yet  again,  Christianity  is  superior  to  the  vast  and 
subtle  religion  of  Hinduism.  This  can  be  proved 
thoroughly  only  by  comparing  the  one  religion 
with  the  other,  point  by  point.  ^  Suffice  it  here 
to  make  one  general  comparison.  Hinduism  is 
proud  of  being  what  it  would  call  universal.  It 
has  succeeded  in  the  past  in  absorbing  into  itself 
the  teaching  of  one  great  system  after  another. 
The  root  of  its  life  as  an  organized  system  is  to  be 
found  in  its  priestcraft.  It  was  this  which  trans- 
formed the  earlier  and  simpler  Nature  Religion, 
out  of  which  it  grew,  into  that  terrible  instrument 
of  human  torture,  the  Brahmanism  which  existed 


^  Cf.  "  Buddhism  "  by  Sir  M.  Monier=Williams,  Lect.  xviii. 
Also  F.  F.  Ellinwood  D.  D.,  in  L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I,  pp.  50-60. 

171 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

in  the  days  of  Buddha.  Buddhism  really  arose  as  a 
kind  of  rationalistic  modification  of  certain  aspects 
of  this  inhuman  system.  Over  against  its  system  of 
caste  Buddha  taught  the  love  of  man,  v/hich,  whether 
he  foresaw  it  or  not,  would  tend  to  abolish  all  caste ; 
over  against  its  demands  for  innumerable  sacrifices 
of  blood  to  appease  angry  deities,  Buddha  set 
his  indifference  whether  there  be  a  God  or  not.^ 
Personal  goodness  seemed  to  him  the  supreme 
matter  of  interest,  as  over  against  the  miserable, 
formal  righteousness  demanded  by  the  priests. 
But  Hinduism  waited  its  time  and  then  quietly 
adopted  Buddha  himself  as  one  of  its  gods,  and 
Buddhism  as  a  distinct  religion  departed  from 
India.  When  again  Mohammedanism  gained 
its  hold  on  sections  of  the  iDeople,  Hinduism 
adopted  some  of  its  features.  And  now  it  is 
striving  in  this  century,  though  some  think 
not  for  the  first  time,  to   take   into    itself   those 


^  There  has  been  some  discussion  regarding  the  degree 
of  revolt  against  Hinduism  of  which  Buddha  may  have  been 
conscious.  Some  describe  him  as  a  deliberate  revolutionary. 
Others  deny  that  he  meant  to  oppose  any  fundamental  points 
of  the  older  religion.  His  attitude  seems  to  have  had  some 
resemblance  to  that  of  St.  Francis  of  Assisi.  In  each  case 
principles  were  passionately  adopted  whose  consistent  real- 
ization would  have  destroyed  the  ecclesiasticism  of  the  day. 
In  each  case  the  new  preacher  was  met  by  both  praise  and 
blame,  both  welcome  and  opposition  from  the  authorities. 
In  each  case  the  purity  of  the  new  light  was  dimmed  by 
being  formally  acknowledged  and  tolerated  by  the  reigning 
power  and  mixed  up  with  its  own  lower  and  lowering  institu- 
tions and  doctrines. 

172 


The  Missionary  and  Other  ReHgions 

elements  of  Christianity  which  it  can  conveniently 
assimilate.  There  are  some  people  who  feel  as  if 
this  power  of  indefinite  assimilation  seems  to 
indicate  that,  in  India  at  least,  Hinduism  can  suc- 
cessfully cope  with  Christianity.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  we  must  remember  that  this  system  of 
eclecticism,  the  mere  adoption  into  itself  of  what 
seems  to  be  best  in  other  systems,  is  not  growth 
from  within.  It  is  an  arbitrary  proceeding.  It 
resembles  rather  the  enlargement  of  objects  in  the 
inorganic  world  by  accretion,  than  the  development 
of  the  energies  of  a  living  thing  in  the  control  of 
more,  and  more  intricate,  organs  and  their  func- 
tions. Hinduism  is  not  truly  universal,  because 
it  has  no  true  unity.  It  has  been  well  called  a 
conglomerate.  Christianity,  on  the  other  hand, 
is  universal  in  a  true  sense,  in  that,  while  it 
has  affinities  with  whatever  is  real  and  valuable 
in  all  systems,  it  has  yet  a  distinctive  life  of  its 
own  and  takes  up  towards  all  a  positive  and 
decisive  attitude.  While  fitted  for  all  men  it  is 
one  and  the  same  in  all  men.  When  it  recognizes 
what  is  of  value  in  Hinduism  or  Buddhism,  it 
simply  finds  there  what  it  already  contains.  Its 
sympathies  arise  not  from  its  readiness  to  adopt 
new  elements  from  other  systems,  but  from  the 
fact  that  the  elements  of  good  in  all  systems  are 
already  in  its  own  heart. 

Lastly,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  Christianity 
is  superior  to  all  these  systems,  from  the  purely 
religious  point  of  view,  in  that  its  supreme  affirma- 
tion has  regard  to  God  Himself  as   acting  on  be- 

173 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

half  of  men;  yea,  as  suffering  with  and  for  them 
Any  religion  which  falls  short  of  this  ideal  is 
thereby  unfitted  to  cope  with  Christianity  in  the 
effort  to  win  the  allegiance  of  the  human  heart. 
If  we  are  to  have  any  thought  or  image  of  God, 
any  ideal  of  a  religious  relation  to  Him,  none  seems 
conceivable  that  is  higher  than  this,  that  God 
Himself  should  spare  not  His  own  Son,  but  in 
view  of  our  deep  and  dire  need  should  deliver 
Him  up  for  us  all.  Whatever  is  best  in  the 
Pantheism  of  the  Hindoo,  in  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Buddhist,  finds  a  more  glorious  expression  and  a 
more  living  energy  in  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

Then  we  must  pass  to  a  comparison  of  Chris- 
tianity with  these  religions  from  the  social  and 
ethical  point  of  view.  It  is  too  late  merely  to 
admit  that  these  great  religions  contain  many 
beautiful  and  true  words  regarding  human  rela- 
tions in  society.  That  is  one  of  the  ordinary  facts 
known  to  all,  which  ought  to  make  all  hearts  glad. 
Nor  should  any  one  hesitate  to  admit  that  within 
certain  limits  these  religions  have  performed  im- 
mense services  to  mankind.  Concerning  Buddhism 
Sir  M.  Monier=  Williams  has  said:  "It  promoted 
progress  up  to  a  certain  point.  It  preached  purity 
in  thought,  word  and  deed,  though  only  for  the 
storing  up  of  merit.  It  proclaimed  the  brother- 
hood of  humanity.  It  avowed  sympathy  with 
social  liberty  and  freedom.  It  gave  back  much 
independence  to  women.  It  inculcated  universal 
benevolence,  extending  even  to  animals;  and  from 
its  declaration  that  a  man\s  future  depended   upon 

174 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

his  present  acts  and  conditions,  it  did  good  service 
for  a^  time   in  preventing    stagnation,   promoting 
activity,  and  elevating  the  character  of  humanity.'" 
As  concerning  Mohammedanism  it  must  be  said 
that  while,  where  its  armies  have  taken  and  con- 
quered regions  of  the  world   which   were   already 
Christian,  it  has  degraded  their  civilization;  yet,  on 
the  other  hand,  it  has  improved  the  social  condition 
of  some  of  those  tribes  in  India  and  Africa  whom 
it  has  overcome.     It  is  able  to  raise  up  to  its  own 
level,  but  only  able  also  to  drag  down  to  its  own 
level   peoples  already  above  it.      Nevertheless   in 
Mohammedanism,  as  in  Buddhism  and  other  ori- 
ental religions,  there  are  elements  of  an  ethical  na- 
ture, features  of  social  teaching  which  are,  on  the 
whole,  of  real   value.      Concerning   the   value   of 
these  elements  of  truth  and  their  social  influence, 
as  compared  with  the  moral  teaching  and  civilizing 
power  of  Christianity,  two  or  three  other  facts  re- 
quire to  be  observed. 

(1).  These  true  and  beautiful  sayings  and  com- 
mandments are  mingled  in  the  sacred  writings  of 
these  religions  with  much  that  is  wrong  and  even 
degrading.  Professor  Max  Mtiller,  in  his  intro- 
duction to  the  translation  of  the  Sacred  Books  of 
the  East,  apologizes  for  the  fact  that,  though 
these  books  were  being  translated  for  scientific  pur- 
poses and  the  use  of  scholars,  there  were  passages 
in  them  which,  "  though  harmless  and  innocent  in 
themselves,  cannot  be  rendered  in  modern  language 

1 L.  M.  c.  Vol.  I,  p.  37. 

175 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

without  the  appearance  of  coarseness."^  Even 
though  the  accomplished  editor  suggested  an  ex- 
planation of  this  by  saying,  that  the  oriental  mind  re- 
gards many  of  these  matters  in  a  different  way  from 
us,  and  that  man  at  that  time  "  really  was  an  animal 
with  all  the  strength  and  weakness  of  an  animal," 
the  explanation  does  not  obliterate  the  fact  nor 
minimize  its  significance  for  our  argument.  Upon 
this  point  Professor  Chamberlain  of  Japan  has 
said  concerning  the  Kojiki,  the  Japanese  sacred 
books  which  he  translated:  "The  shocking  ob- 
scenity of  word  and  act  to  which  the  *  records '  bear 
witness  is  another  ugly  feature  which  must  not 
quite  be  passed  over  in  silence.  It  is  true  that 
decency,  as  we  understand  it,  is  a  very  modern  pro- 
duct, and  it  is  not  to  be  looked  for  in  a  society  in  a 
barbarous  stage.  At  the  same  time,  the  whole  range 
of  literature  might  perhaps  be  ransacked  for  a  paral- 
lel to  the  native  filthiness  of  certain  passages  here."^ 
Dr.  Griffis,  than  whom  there  is  no  higher  or  fair- 
er judge  of  the  history  of  religion  in  Japan  has 
said:  "Buddhism  has  had  a  fair  field  in  JajDan, 
and  its  outcome  has  not  been  elevating.  Its  influ- 
ence has  been  atheistic,  and  not  ethical.  It  added 
culture  and  art  to  Japan  as  it  brought  with  itself 
the  civilization  of  continental  Asia."  Mohammed- 
anism, it  must  be  said,  suffers  under  the  same  dis- 
ability as  Buddhism,  for  the  Koran  also  contains 
much  ethical  teaching  that  is  to  be  reprobated. 


1  "The  Sacred  Books  of  the  East."     Vol  I.,  Preface  p.  xxi. 

2  Quoted  by  W.  E.  Griffis  in  "  The  Religions  of  Japan,"  p.  66 

176 


The  Missionary  and  Other  ReHgions 

Professor  Max  Mtiller,  in   the    passage  already 
referred  to,  describes  the  causes  which  led  to  that 
growth    of    what   appears   to   us  a  heterogeneous 
mass  of  irrelevant,  inferior  and  oftentimes  deplor- 
able material  around  the  purer  and  nobler  teach- 
ings which  these  religions  possessed.     Those  which 
he  names  may  be  "  true  causes,"  but  he  omits  to 
mention  the  one  condition  whose  absence  made  the 
operation    of   these    causes   ejffective,    and   whose 
presence  saved  the  records  of  the  religion  of  Keve- 
lation  from  the  same  disaster.     This  condition  was 
the  possession  of  a  standard  of  judgment.     What 
standard  guided  the  minds  of  the  Jews  in  the  for- 
mation of  their  canon  it  may  not  be  easy  to  say. 
Assuredly  it  was  no  ideal  of  scientific  history,  nor 
any  modern  conception  of  the  ethics  of  authorship 
and  publication.     Probably  the  standard  was  a  re- 
ligious one,  and  was  derived  from   the  prophetic 
teaching    about    the    character    of    Jehovah  and 
about  His  purposes  and  dealings  with  Israel.     The 
canonical  literature  of  the  Old  Testament  does  on 
the  whole  deal  with  these  two  mutually  related  sub- 
jects.     In   the  formation  of  the   New   Testament 
canon  the  early  Church  was  guided  by  the  ideal  of 
apostolic   authority.     The  central  figure   in   their 
life  and  worship,  the  fountain  head  of  truth  and 
supreme  object  of  intellectual  interest,  was  indeed 
their  Savior    and    Lord,  Jesus  Christ.      But  this 
very  fact  made  it  the  more  obvious  that  henceforth 
the  normative  Christian  teaching  must  be  formed 
out  of  the  writings  of  those  who  stood  in  unique 
relations  to  Him  both  before  and  after  His  death 
177 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

and  resurrection.  This  close  connection  between 
the  standard  of  the  canonical  literature  of  the  New 
Covenant,  and  the  personality  of  Jesus,  undoubted- 
ly accounts  for  the  unexampled  freedom  of  the 
New  Testament  from  all  that  is  foolish  and  intellec- 
tually contemptible,  as  well  as  from  all  teaching 
that  is  unhealthy  and  impure/  The  heathen  re- 
ligions had  no  such  standard.  The  natural  causes 
which  Professor  Max  Miiller  has  enumerated  had 
freedom  to  act  corruptingly,  unintelligently  upon 
the  growth  of  the  Sacred  Books  of  the  East. 

(2).  Although  these  religions  do  recognize  the 
need  that  men  should  give  up  certain  forms  of  self- 
ishness and  evil-doing  and  live  according  to  the 
higher  standard,  they  do  not  provide  or  manifest 
any  force  that  shall  enable  their  adherents  to 
realize  this  ideal.  Buddhism,  while  urging  with 
passion  the  ideals  of  the  pure  heart  and  the 
clear  mind,  distinctly  asserts  that  no  man  can 
possibly  escape  the  direct  penalty  of  his  sins.  The 
utmost  that  a  man  can  hope  for  is  that  he  may  be 
able  by  good  deeds,  by  pure  thoughts,  to  lay  up  for 
himself  a  store  of  merit.      How   the   man  who   is 


^  There  are,  indeed,  in  the  Old  Testament  a  few  narratives 
of  shame,  and  the  people  of  Israel  did^pass  through  various 
stages  of  religious  and  moral  attainment.  It  is  the  peculiar 
glory  of  the  religion  of  Revelation  that  it  has  preserved  the 
main  outlines  of  the  progress  of  that  Revelation,  and  that  in 
Jesus  Christ  we  have  the  standard  by  means  of  which  we  can 
distinguish  what  was  false  or  evil  from  what  was  true  and 
good  in  the  faith  and  practice  of  earlier  days.  This  is  the 
only  religion  in  the  world  which  possesses  that  feature,  and 
no  religion  can  be   final  which  does  not  possess  it, 

178 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

not  only  capable  of  evil,  but  is  also  sold  under 
sin,  enslaved  to  his  past,  can  reform  himself,  has 
been  the  permanent  problem  of  human  history ; 
and  Buddhism  like  Mohammedanism  has  failed  to 
provide  a  solution.  Although  in  each  case  one 
man,  a  teacher  or  prophet,  stands  out  as  the 
founder  of  the  religion,  the  revealer  of  all  the 
wisdom  which  it  contains,  each  of  these  religions 
suffers  in  comparison  with  Christianity,  the 
moment  one  even  thinks  of  contrasting  Buddha  or 
Mohammed  with  Jesus  Christ.  In  Him  the 
ideal  man  is  at  once  the  fountain  of  light  and  of 
strength,  the  object  of  hope  and  inspiration.  From 
Him  His  followers  have  learned;  in  Him  they 
believe  that  they  receive  personal  and  actual  invig- 
oration;  and  unto  Him  they  hope,  one  and  all, 
personally  to  return.  Were  He  not  the  Ideal  Man 
at  the  beginning  of  their  history,  the  hope  would 
be  no  inspiration;  were  the  hope  not  shining 
there  before  their  eyes  the  memory  would  be  a 
bitter  mockery;  and  were  He  only  a  memory  and  a 
hope,  but  not  a  living  presence,  His  followers 
would  find  it  hard  to  pursue  their  ideal  and  to 
cherish  their  love.  It  is  because  they  find 
in  Him  one  who  from  day  to  day  is  in  actual  touch 
with  their  separate  selves,  that  they  have  gone  out 
to  shed  His  light  upon  all  parts  of  the  earth. 

(3).  But  further,  there  are  many  positive  teach- 
ings characteristic  of  these  religions  and  derived 
from  their  founders,  which  we  now  know  to  have 
been  simply  blunders  and  which  put  them,  when 
compared  with  Christianity,  in  a  realm  below  com- 

179 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

parison  with  it.  Various  matters  might  be  named 
in  proof  of  this;  let  one  be  final  and  sufficient,  as  a 
test,  i.  e.,  their  teaching  concerning  women.  As 
Dr.  Post,  that  great  observer  and  teacher,  who  has 
lived  so  long  in  Mohammedan  lands,  has  said: 
"Women  determine  the  social  condition  in  any 
country  and  any  race.  No  race  has  ever  risen 
above  the  condition  of  its  women."  The  condition 
to  which  Mohammedanism  has  reduced  woman= 
kind  is  too  well  known  to  need  description.  The 
land  of  the  veil  is  the  land  of  woman's  degradation. 
And  this  is  the  result  of  a  gradual  lowering  of  the 
tone  of  Mohammed  himself.  It  is  the  result  of  his 
personal  example  and  of  the  legislation  which  his 
criminal  life  led  him  to  issue.  His  own  life  was 
the  fountain  from  which  the  long-drawn-out  and 
most  wretched  history  of  womankind  in  the  great 
Mohammedan  countries  has  been  derived.  And 
as  regards  Buddhism  again,  let  this  be  sufficient, 
that  Buddha  had  no  message  for  womankind.  As 
the  great  authority  whom  I  have  already  quoted 
has  presented  it.  Buddhism  says;  "Avoid  married 
life;  shun  it  as  if  it  were  a  burning  pit  of  live  coals 
or  having  entered  on  it  abandon  wife,  children, 
home,  and  go  about  as  celibate  monks  engaging  in 
nothing  except  in  the  meditation  and  recitation  of 
Buddha's  law,  that  is  if  you  aim  at  the  highest 
degree  of  sanctification."  '  In  this  matter  also  the 
teaching  of  Buddhism  appeals  not  merely  to  the 
words  but  to  the  example  of  Buddha  himself.     For 


^  "Buddhism  "  by  Sir  M.  Monier=Williams  p.  562. 

180 


The  Missionary  and  Other  ReHgions 

he  not  only  forsook  his  own  wife  and  child,  but 
encouraged  others  to  do  the  same.  His  opening 
of  the  new  religion  to  women  was  wrung 
from  him  and  did  not  belong  to  his  original  plan. 
It  seems  almost  an  impertinence  to  name  these 
forms  of  religious  teaching  in  the  same  breath 
with  the  example  and  precepts  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Let  the  Christian  ideal  of  a  wife  and  mother  and 
sister  stand  out  as  proof  that  in  this  matter 
Mohammed  or  Buddha  are  not  fit  even  to  be  com- 
]pared  with  the  Founder  of  Christianity. 

The  comparison  of  Christianity  with  these  other 
religions  may  still  further  be  carried  out  by  looking 
at  the  course  of  their  respective  historical  develop- 
ments. On  this  matter  it  is  sufiicient  to  say  that, 
while  the  history  of  Christianity  has  been  upwards 
and  progressive,  the  histories  of  Mohammedanism 
and  Buddhism,  not  to  speak  of  Hinduism,  have 
been  downwards.  As  regards  the  first,  the  lack 
of  a  true  power  of  development  is  evident  from  the 
life  of  Mohammed  himself..  Concerning  him  Dr. 
Bruce  of  Persia  has  well  said:  "During  the  first 
fifty4wo  years  we  see  him  in  his  boyhood  and 
youth  among  the  Arabs  as  a  young  man  of  excep- 
tional sincerity,  truthfulness,  and  purity  of  life. 
From  his  twenty^fifth  year  to  his  fiftieth,  while 
he  is  a  monogamist,  we  see  the  picture  of  his 
family  life;  and  it  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  that  we  can  find  in  all  the  history  of  non== 
Christian  peoples.  But  when  we  pass  to  his  ma- 
tured age  and  see  him  set  up  his  standard  in 
Medina  as  a  prophet  when  he  is  fifty^wo  years  of 

181 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

age,  and  when  we  study  the  last  eleven  years  of  his 
life,  we  are  struck  at  once  with  the  most  awful  and 
most  terrible  of  contrasts."  ^  Concerning  Hindu- 
ism, on  the  other  hand,  it  has  again  been  well 
said:  "The  sacred  books  of  Hinduism  have  degen- 
erated from  the  lofty  aspirations  of  the  Vedic 
nature-worship  to  the  vileness  of  Saktism,  from 
the  noble  praises  of  Varuna  to  the  low  sensuality 
of  the  Tantras,  from  Vedic  descriptions  of  creation 
sublime  as  the  opening  of  John's  Gospel  to  the 
escapades  of  Krishna  or  the  polyandry  which  dis- 
graced the  celestial  family  of  Pandu."  ^ 

No  one  can  maintain  that  Mohammedanism  in  the 
Turkish  Empire  is  a  noble  or  x)ure  religion,  or  has 
yielded  any  promise  of  developing  into  such  since 
the  early  years  of  its  military  triumphs.  And  no  one 
can  maintain  that,  even  in  Ceylon  or  Japan, 
Buddhism  has  in  this  last  century  manifested  any 
forces  which  are  fit  to  carry  a  people  forward  in 
religious  and  ethical  attainment.  The  history  of 
these  religions  has  been  a  steady  decline  of  purity, 
truth  and  power.  On  the  other  hand  the  history  of 
Christianity  is  the  history  of  a  progressive  move- 
ment in  thought  and  in  personal  life.  The  devel- 
opment of  religious  and  ethical  ideas  in  the  Old 
Testament  is  now  more  fully  described  and  appre- 
ciated than  it  has  ever  been  before.  And  the 
Christian  Church,  in  spite  of  many  dark  periods 
that  have  intervened,  in  spite  of  disagreement  in 


^L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I,  p,  18.,  in  The  "Life  of  Mohamet,"  by 
Sir.  Wm.  Muir.     pp.  506,  7. 
2L.  M.  C,  Vol.  I,  p.  57. 

182 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

various  directions,  ecclesiastical,  theological,  social 
and  ethical,  whose  memory  it  is  a  pain  to  cherish, 
has  yet  manifested  the  true  elements  of  evolution 
towards  an  ideal.  Alike  in  the  world  of  theology 
and  the  world  of  practice,  the  life  of  the  Christian 
Church  can  be  proved  to  be  incomparably  richer, 
purer,  nobler,  and  of  course  vaster  in  the  nine- 
teenth century  than  in  the  second.  Let  the 
hymns  sung  in  our  Churches,  the  great  sermon  lit- 
erature, the  ever  accumulating  manuals  of  devotion 
to  the  deeper  life,  the  wide  and  wise  systems  of 
charity  and  evangelization,  which  all  flow  from  the 
life  of  the  Church  of  Christ  to=day,  bear  witness  to 
the  fact  that  it  is  in  process  of  evolution  toward 
some  great  ideal  of  worship  and  character,  of  love 
and  purity.  When  you  take  a  wide  enough  view 
of  the  whole  course  of  Christian  history,  even  af- 
ter you  allow  for  all  the  questionable  experiments, 
all  the  miserable  failures  of  individual  men  in  this 
institution  during  the  centuries  that  lie  between 
the  raising  of  Christ  from  the  dead  and  the  close 
of  the  nineteenth  century,  nothing  can  reduce  the 
significance  of  this  one  fact  that  at  last  one  religion 
has  been  found  whose  life  after  two  thousand  years 
appears  to  be  more  vigorous  and  even  more  full 
of  the  spirit  and  ideal  of  its  Founder  than  in  any 
of  its  earlier  generations. 

If  then,  Christianity  is  in  process  of  destroy- 
ing the  older  and  most  impressive  systems  of  relig- 
ion, what  are  the  weapons  by  which  this  work  is 
being  done?  On  the  aggressive  side  the  weapons 
are  two=fold.     In  the  first  place,  the  philosophical 

183 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ground^work  of  all  these  religions  is  being  sub- 
jected to  the  severest  test  by  being  compelled  to 
face  the  scientific  and  philosophical  theories  and 
achievements  of  the  western  world.  The  latter 
are  largely  the  creation  of  the  Christian  spirit. 
Generation  after  generation  has  arisen,  some  of 
whose  sons  in  Europe  and  America  have  thought 
that  at  last  the  argument  or  the  system  had  been 
discovered  which  would  annihilate  Christianity;  but 
Christianity  has  triumphed  over  them  all.  And  her 
repeated  triumphs  enable  one,  with  some  confi- 
dence, to  say  that  the  philosophical  ground=work 
upon  which  this  religion  rests  is  incomparably  the 
noblest  and  the  truest  which  the  world  has  yet 
seen.  But  how  different  is  the  result  of  that  con- 
tact between  oriental  religions  and  occidental 
thought  during  our  own  generation!  Concern- 
ing Buddhism  Dr.  Griffis  has  said:  "Despite  its 
apparent  interest  in  and  harmony  with  statements 
of  science,  it  does  not  hold  the  men  of  thought  or 
those  who  long  for  the  spiritual  purification  and 
elevation  of  Japan."  ^  And  in  India,  with  some 
notable  and  remarkable  exceptions,  it  seems  to  be 
found  impossible  for  educated  men  to  retain  their 
beliefs  in  the  religion  of  their  fathers.  The  scien- 
tific and  philosophical  training  which  they  receive 
in  the  higher  institutions  of  learning  makes  the 
whole  outlook  of  Mohammedanism  and  Buddhism, 
as  these  have  hitherto  existed,  simply  impossible. 
Before  the  white  light  of  knowledge  they  pale  and 


1  "  The  Religions  of  Japan,"  p.  285. 

184: 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

vanish  Kke  ghosts.  But  in  another  direction 
scholarship  is  undermining  the  authority  of  these 
religions;  for  orientalists  are  investigating,  with  the 
most  minute  care  and  the  most  sympathetic  atti- 
tude of  mind,  the  historical  origins  of  these  relig- 
ions. This  process  of  investigation  is  also  mak- 
ing it  impossible  for  educated  men  to  remain  be- 
lievers in  Buddhism  or  Mohammedanism,  as  these 
have  hitherto  existed. 

But  this  brings  us  to  another  matter  of  very 
great  importance  and  interest.  Many  minds  are 
now  asking,  whether  or  not  it  is  possible  that  these 
eastern  religions,  in  the  conflict  with  Christianity 
and  in  cooperation  with  it,  may  not  give  birth  to  a 
new  religion  which  shall  comprise  the  excellencies 
of  all  religions  at  present  in  existence,  exclude 
their  errors,  and  so  become  the  ideal  embodiment 
of  truth  and  the  ideal  inspiration  of  virtue?  The 
last  quarter  of  a  century  has  seen  many  most  inter- 
esting experiments  of  this  kind  in  the  East.  The 
action  of  Christianity  and  Western  civilization 
upon  the  adherents  of  these  ancient  religions,  and 
upon  the  peoples  that  have  been  so  long  bound  in 
the  fetters  of  Hindoo  civilization,  has  created  a  ver- 
itable fever  of  energetic  independence.  Men's 
minds  are  striking  out  in  various  directions,  full  of 
daring  and  full  of  hope.  For  example,  even  among 
Mohammedans  of  India  there  are  certain  men  who 
seek  to  prove  that  the  bad  features  of  Islam, 
as  it  is  historically  known,  such  as  its  approval 
of  polygamy,  its  religious  devotion  to  war,  its 
subjection  to  the  authority  of  the  Koran,  are  not 

185 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

original  elements  of  Mohammedanism,  are  not 
essential  to  it,  are  now  rather  to  be  discarded 
as  incidental  evils  that  have  appeared  in  the  course 
of  time.  Some  men  of  considerable  acuteness  and 
great  earnestness  are  seeking  in  this  direction  to 
reestablish  Mohammedanism  while  purifying  it 
from  obvious  errors.  Amongst  Hindoos  there  are 
many  who  cherish  strong  hopes  of  being  able  to 
purify  both  Christianity  and  their  own  religion  by 
such  a  process  of  mutual  criticism.  Certain  of 
these  movements  have  become  widely  known 
throughout  Christendom.  The  work  of  Keshub 
Chunder  Sen  in  his  leadership  of  that  most  inter- 
esting movement  known  as  the  Brahmo^somaj,  is 
the  best  type  of  these.  Followers  of  his,  like  Mo- 
zoomdar,^  have  done  much  in  the  spirit  of  their 
leader  to  throve  light  upon  the  impossibility  of 
such  a  task  as  he  undertook.  Even  in  Japan,  or 
rather  I  should  say,  of  course  in  Japan,  where  we 
may  expect  to  see  every  kind  of  experiment  in 
every  line  of  life  attempted  by  that  sprightly  peo- 
ple, we  have  various  efforts  at  religious  compro- 
mise. We  are  told  that  recently  a  fraternal  con- 
ference was  held  in  Tokio  in  which  nineteen 
Buddhists,  sixteen  Christians,  a  few  Shintoists 
and  a  few  others  of  no  decidedly  religious  convic- 
tions, met  to  describe  and  emphasize  those  matters 
in  which  they  agree  and  by  virtue  of  which  they 
could  proceed  to  work  amongst  their  fellow-coun- 


^  Cf.  Mozoomdar's  two  most  devout  and  interesting  works, 
"The  Orientr.l  Christ,"  and  "The  Spirit  of  God." 

186 


The  Missionary  and  Other  ReHgions 

trymen.  "  Much  was  made  of  trying  to  adapt 
Christianity  to  Japanese  thought  and  character." 
The  Japanese  periodicals  described  the  movement 
as  "  Yabutsu  Sekken,"  which  means,  "  the  question 
of  the  coming  together  of  Buddhism  and  Christi- 
anity."' 

We  may  expect  that  these  experiments  will  be 
made  in  still  greater  numbers  and  with  still  greater 
vigor.  But  their  success  depends  upon  the  ques- 
tion whether  those  religions  contain  any  doctrine 
or  reveal  any  source  of  inspiration  which  is  of  es- 
sential moment  to  the  religious  consciousness  of 
man  and  which  Christianity  does  not  already  con- 
tain. This  is  the  point  which  many  very  confident 
prophets  of  the  success  of  some  such  system  of 
eclecticism  habitually  forget.  For,  if  these  relig- 
ions do  contain  some  such  force  or  truth,  let  it  be 
named,  and  let  its  absence  from  the  Christian 
Church  be  proved.  If  they  do  not,  compromise  is 
a  logical  impossibility.  Yet  another  fact  in  con- 
nection with  this  attempt  to  establish  a  final  relig- 
ion out  of  the  ruins,  as  we  must  call  them,  of  the 
oriental  faiths,  is  frequently  ignored.  When  one 
turns  to  any  books  or  tracts  intended  to  describe 
those  ethical  teachings  in  Buddhism  or  Hindu- 
ism or  Mohammedanism  which  are  of  permanent 
value,  we  soon  begin  to  discover  that  the  stand- 
ard of  selection  is  that  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ. 
For  example,  when  Dr.  Paul  Carus,  of  Chicago, 
publishes  a  book  of  great  interest  and  entitles  it, 


^  Vide  Art.  by  Dr.  J.  D .  Davis,  in  "  The  Advance,"  Mar.  11, 1897. 
187 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

"  The  Gospel  of  Buddha,"  a  brief  examination  re- 
veals the  fact  that  only  a  Christian  man,  or  a  man 
with  a  Christian  training,  which  for  this  argu- 
ment is  the  same  thing,  could  have  made  this 
selection.  And,  when  one  reads  on  certain  of  its 
pages  that  leading  Buddhists  in  India  or  else- 
where have  highly  praised  it  as  a  summary  of  the 
essence  of  Buddhism,  one  cannot  but  remember 
that  the  taste  of  these  educated  people  has  been 
much  molded  by  their  own  personal  acquaintance 
with  the  ethical  teaching  of  the  New  Testament. 
After  all  it  seems  to  be  the  fact  that  all  these  com- 
promises, where  they  are  intelligently  made  or 
possess  any  value  whatsoever,  are  a  tribute  to  the 
incomparable  truth  and  worth  of  the  Christian 
religion.  It  is  the  Lord  of  the  religions  of  the 
earth.  They  are  all  submitting  themselves  to  its 
judgment,  even  in  order  to  discover  what  is  best 
in  themselves  and  what  has  been  most  important 
in  their  own  history. 

One  argument  employed  in  favor  of  the  idea  that 
Christianity  cannot  cope  with  these  great  religions  of 
India  arises  from  the  exaggeration  of  the  difference 
between  the  oriental  and  occidental  types  of  mind. 
The  oriental  mind  is  described  as  so  peculiar  in  its 
methods  of  thought,  so  molded  by  the  ideals  of 
religion  which  have  obtained  sway  over  it  through 
long  generations,  that  it  is  hopeless  to  think  of 
instilling  into  it  what  are  called  purely  Western 
ideas  of  religious  thought  and  life.  And  no  doubt 
the  oriental  mind  is  strangely  different  from  the 
European.     No  doubt  also  in  virtue  of  its  habits 

188 


The  Missionary  and  Other  ReHgions 

the  Indian  or  the  Chinaman  may  find  it  exceedingly 
difficult  to  assimilate  the  theology  of  the  historical 
Christian  Church.  But  this  does  not  prove  that 
Christianity  is  so  unsuited  to  the  oriental  mind  that 
the  latter  will  not  be  persuaded  to  receive  it. 

For,  in  the  first  place,  we  must  remember  that 
Christianity  had  its  origin  in  the  East  and  that 
the  Christian  Scriptures  are  full  of  modes  of 
thought  and  mystic  conceptions  which  claim  close 
kinship  with  those  of  the  oriental  religions. 

And,  in  the  second  place,  a  double  inquiry 
suggests  itself  regarding  this  oriental  type  of 
mind.  To  begin  with,  one  must  inquire  whether 
its  modes  of  working  are  superior  to  those  which 
the  European  mind  has  attained.  It  is  not  at 
all  obvious  that,  so  far  as  the  oriental  mind  is 
incapable  of  appreciating  the  severe  scientific 
methods  of  the  European,  it  is  not  inferior  to 
the  latter.  Its  characteristic  elements  may,  per- 
haps, be  described  as,  first,  thinking  through 
imagery.  No  doubt  the  mind  that  is  content  to  do 
its  thinking  by  similes  and  metaphors  does  obtain 
frequent  illuminations.  The  contemplation  and 
comparison  of  conceptions  which  in  themselves 
seem  diverse  may  gradually  bring  to  light 
apparent  points  of  similarity  and  suggest 
thoughts  both  novel  and  beautiful.  But  this 
kind  of  thinking,  which  pervades  the  sacred 
books  of  the  East  from  end  to  end,  and  may 
be  said  to  be  characteristic  of  the  oriental  type  of 
mind,  has  very  decided  limitations.  There  is  no 
certainty  regarding  the  conclusions  to  which  it 
189 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

leads.  There  is  required  the  more  sober  work  of 
analysis,  the  use  of  some  standards  of  reality,  the 
appeal  to  some  facts  whose  nature  is  already  inde- 
pendently ascertained,  ere  this  kind  of  thinking 
can  be  considered  of  objective  value.  As  a  matter 
of  fact  it  has  resulted  in  making  oriental  religion 
so  intensely  individualistic  as  it  has  become  even 
in  its  Buddhistic  form.  Then,  further,  there  is 
that  element  of  the  oriental  type  of  mind,  known 
as  the  mystical.  To  be  sure  Europe  has  had  its 
mystics  and  some  of  them  are  not  unworthy  to  be 
compared  with  the  most  sublime  of  Indian  thinkers 
and  teachers.  But  in  the  East,  mysticism,  the 
sense  of  inward  personal  contact  with  the  ideal, 
the  infinite — the  submission  of  the  mind  and  heart 
to  the  sway  of  thoughts  which  are  vast,  indefinite, 
which  seem  to  bring  the  individual  soul  into  con- 
tact, vague  but  real,  inexpressible  but  sweet 
and  entrancing,  with  the  Alhsoul,  the  One, 
the  Eternal — this  has  been  at  once  the  strength  and 
the  weakness  of  oriental  thought.  It  is  open  to 
the  severest  criticism  not  only  on  intellectual 
grounds  but  for  its  religious  and  moral  effects,  for 
its  easy  exaggeration  of  a  truth  into  a  most  danger- 
ous if  impalpable  superstition.  Then,  yet  again, 
this  oriental  thought  is  distinguished  by  its  lack  of 
dependence  upon  the  historical  and  actual.  Its 
religions  profess  to  be  grounded  upon  events  in  the 
past,  but  so  little  has  the  oriental  mind  cared  for 
this,  so  little  are  the  facts  essential  to  the  religion, 
that  they  have  become  overlaid  with  all  manner  of 
legend  and  folly.     The  individual  founder  of   the 

190 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

religion  is  not  necessary  to  its  continuance;  he 
passes  away  and  henceforth  becomes  the  subject 
of  popular,  endless  and  entirely  uncritical  descrip- 
tion and  faith. 

Over  against  these  elements  of  the  oriental 
mind  we  place  those  of  the  western  mind,  with 
its  clinging  to  the  concrete,  which  is  at  once 
the  fountain  and  the  result  of  its  marvelous  at- 
tainments, and  its  careful  scrutiny  of  history. 
One  young  Japanese  scholar  after  a  prolonged 
course  of  study  in  America  returned  to  his  native 
land  to  become  a  professor.  He  resolved  to  apply 
the  scientific  methods  of  inquiry  which  he  had 
learned  abroad  to  the  history  of  his  ancestral  re- 
ligions. The  results  were  so  surprising,  and  pro- 
duced such  dismay  among  his  pui^ils  and  in  the 
minds  of  the  authorities,  that  he  had  to  cease  from 
that  kind  of  work.  It  may  be  said  of  course  that 
similar  methods  of  coercion  have  been  applied  by 
ecclesiastical  authorities  to  those  who  investigated 
the  history  of  Christian  origins  and  Christian 
documents,  and  who  reported  in  terms  not  favor- 
able to  traditional  ideas  of  these  matters.  But  it 
has  to  be  remembered,  on  the  other  hand,  that 
while  in  Japan  the  investigation  was  killing  and 
is  killing  the  faith  of  educated  people  in  those 
stories,  the  far  deeper  investigations  into  Christian 
history  have  not  ended  in  that  way.  In  fact  so 
valuable  have  historical  studies  proved  to  the  life 
of  the  Church,  that  to-day  they  are  pursued  with  a 
thoroughness  and  on  a  scale  unsurpassed  by  any- 
thing in  the  intellectual  life  of  man. 

191 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

The  enormous  importance  which  the  Christian 
religion  has  come  to  attach  to  exactness  of  his- 
torical statement,  arises  from  the  fact  that  this 
religion  is  nothing  without  its  history.  The 
powers  that  to-day  work  in  the  human  heart  are 
said  by  it  to  be  vitally  connected  with  events  and 
deeds  which  occurred  amongst  men.  Without  the 
appropriation  of  the  latter  a  man  remains  dead  to 
the  former. 

These  features  which  indicate  the  immense  supe- 
riority of  the  European  over  the  Asiatic  mind  raise 
now  the  second  inquiry,  whether  that  which  is 
likely  to  take  place,  instead  of  being  the  absorption 
of  Christianity  into  the  vague  cavern  of  the  "  ori- 
ental type  of  mind,"  will  not  be,  to  change 
the  metaphor,  the  emancipation  of  that  mind  from 
its  age  long  fetters.  The  experience  of  the  Education 
Department  of  the  Government  of  India,  as  well 
as  that  of  the  Missionary  Church,  seems  to  indicate 
that  Eurojpean  science  and  philosophy,  as  well  as 
religion,  are  about  to  produce  in  the  Eastern  world 
one  of  the  swiftest  and  mightiest  intellectual  revo- 
lutions known  to  history.  That  contributions  of 
value  will  be  made  from  the  East  to  the  stock  of 
the  world's  wisdom  and  to  man's  spiritual  insight, 
goes  without  saying.  The  Church  is  ready  to  wel- 
come them  all.  But  it  is  practically  certain  that  the 
Church  of  Christ  and  the  European  mind  will,  as 
regards  modes  of  thought  and  forms  of  religious 
life,  give  infinitely  more  than  they  will  ever  re- 
ceive. Signs  of  this  are  abundant  enough  already. 
For,  after  all,  something  like  two  millions  of  Asiatics 

192 


The  Missionary  and  Other  Religions 

have  become  converts  to  Christianity,  and  there  are 
many  thousands  of  Indian  men  whose  minds  are 
saturated  with  the  methods  and  spirit  of  occidental 
science  and  philosophy.  That  the  result  is  at  pres- 
ent confusing,  and  is  accompanied  by  some  phe- 
nomena which  are  ludicrous,  as  well  as  startling, 
in  the  crude  theories  and  expressions  of  opinion 
characteristic  of  the  young  Indian  who  has  slight- 
ly tasted  European  modes  of  thought,  is  only 
what  we  ought  to  expect.  But  the  work  of  trans- 
formation is  proceeding.  It  may  not  be  too  bold 
to  assert,  that  as  a  result,  the  leading  races  of  the 
world  will  receive  one  more  proof  that  their  prog- 
ress in  philosophy,  in  science  and  in  religion  has 
been  real,  by  finding  that  their  communication  of 
the  wealth  so  hardly  won  is  making  the  poorer 
people  of  the  Orient  rich  after  the  same  fashion. 

193 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  MISSIONARY  AS  SAVIOR. 

In  the  preceding  pages  we  have  discussed  mis- 
sionary activity  in  various  phases  and  the  influence 
of  the  missionary  movement  upon  the  heathen 
world  in  various  directions.  We  have  seen  the 
preacher  of  Christ  as  the  pioneer,  opening  up 
new  countries  and  bringing  them  into  living 
connection  with  the  centers  of  civilization. 
We  have  seen  him  as  the  linguist,  translator 
and  author;  we  have  watched  him  as  the  edu- 
cator, the  overseer,  the  adviser  of  native  teach- 
ers, converts  and  chieftains.  Such  a  survey  might 
suggest  to  some  minds  that  the  aim  of  the  mission- 
ary is  to  be  found  in  these  activities  and  labors, 
and  that  the  final  reason  for  this  great  movement 
must  be  discovered  in  its  social  and  visible  effects. 
It  would  be,  however,  a  great  mistake  to  sujppose 
that  the  missionary  engages  in  any  of  these  forms 
of  service  to  mankind  for  their  own  sakes.  He 
knows  their  value  and  rejoices  in  it;  he  would  be 
the  last  to  depreciate  any  portion  of  the  work  which 
he  has  done  or  the  results  which  he  has  seen  in  the 
midst  of  a  heathen  civilization.  But  these  activi- 
ties have  all  been  entered  upon  as  means  towards 
another  end,  which  is  the  supreme  object  of  his 
ambition.     They  may  all  be  described  as  the  means 

191 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

or  the  adjuncts  or  the  consequences  of  his  devotion 
to  that  one  aim. 

The  missionaries  have  gone  out  to  do  the  work  of 
saviors.  They  believed  that  this  is  the  one 
purpose  for  which  it  is  worth  their  while  to  sacri- 
fice their  whole  careers  and,  if  necessary,  yield  up 
their  lives.  Their  whole  object,  the  one  constant 
endeavor  which  is  ever  present  to  their  minds,  is  the 
making  of  individual  heathen  men  and  women 
into  Christian  converts.  For  this  they  translate 
and  educate,  for  this  they  travel  and  suffer,  organ- 
ize and  preach.  They  desire  to  bring  men  to  that 
act  which  the  Christian  world  calls  faith  in  Christ, 
to  that  accompanying  experience  which  the  Chris- 
tian world  calls  the  new  birth.  In  the  pursuit  of 
this  aim,  they  believe  that  they  are  acting  in  the 
spirit  and  following  the  example  of  Jesus  Christ, 
their  Master.  He  spoke  of  men  as  lost,  as  separate 
from  God,  like  the  prodigal  from  his  father;  and 
the  supreme  aim  of  His  ministry  and  death  was  to 
bring  this  condition  to  an  end,  to  save  the  lost,  to 
arouse  the  trust  and  love  of  man  towards  God. 
This  aim  passed  from  Him  to  His  apostles;  they 
too  went  everywhere  seeking  to  persuade  men  to 
believe  in  Christ,  to  enter  upon  those  relations 
with  God  which  He  had  made  possible.  The 
missionary,  as  a  man  who  himself  has  received  this 
consciousness  of  the  new  life  and  finds  himself  in 
relations  of  trust  and  harmony  towards  God,  strives 
to  do  for  the  heathen  world  the  same  work  which 
the  apostles  accomplished  for  so  many  in  the 
Graeco=Roman  vforld,   in  the  name  of   Christ.     To 

195 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

the  mind  of  the  missionary,  the  word  "  lost "  which 
fell  from  the  lips  of  Jesus  describes  accurately,  if 
dismally,  the  condition  of  heathen  men  and  women. 
Having  received  something  of  the  Spirit  of  Christ 
into  his  heart,  he  yearns  to  be  the  means  of  deliver- 
ing some  men  and  women  out  of  their  dread  con- 
dition into  the  life  of  divine  fellowship.  It  is 
this  alone  which  seems  so  glorious  a  work,  that  for 
its  sake  he  will  give  up  all  that  he  counts  dear,  as 
we  have  seen,  and  toil  in  all  directions  at  any  task 
which  promises  to  aid  him  in  this  supreme  purpose. 
If  we  examine  the  journals,  letters  and  speeches 
of  evangelical  missionaries  of  any  section  of  the 
Christian  Church,  working  amongst  the  children  of 
any  race,  we  find  that  it  is  for  this  they  watch 
and  work  through  all  the  years.  When  Henry 
Martyn,  after  landing  in  India,  expressed  the  de- 
sire to  "  burn  out  for  God,"  his  thought  was  fixed 
upon  this  work  of  a  savior;  when  Carey  spent  his 
forty  years  and  more  in  toil  of  many  kinds,  his 
eyes  were  ever  directed  forwards  towards  the  per- 
suasion of  the  Indian  peoples  to  become  believers 
in  Jesus  Christ;  when  J.  G.  Paton  remained  on 
Tanna  after  the  death  of  his  wife,  lonely,  crushed 
and  fever=stricken,  when  he  turned  a  deaf  ear 
to  proposals  that  he  should  leave  the  island  for  a 
time,  when  he  saw  the  ship  sail  out  to  sea  and 
went  from  the  shore  to  his  desolate  house  again, 
that  which  was  in  his  mind,  which  shone  like  a 
beacon  of  hope  before  the  eyes  of  his  soul,  was  the 
prospect  of  watching   some  fierce  and  brutal  is- 

196 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

lander  begin  to  see  the  light,  to  feel  the  stings  of 
conscience,  to  seek  the  forgiveness  of  God  and  find  the 
transforming  fellowship  of  Jesus  Christ;  when  a 
man  so  full  of  domestic  tenderness  and  sympathetic 
love  as  James  Gilmour  gave  himself  up  to  the  mis- 
erable loneliness  of  those  long  winters  in  Mongo- 
lia, when  he  stood  under  his  little  awning  on  the 
public  street  day  after  day,  selling  medicines  and 
books,  and  speaking  with  all  who  would  approach 
him,  what  did  he  hunger  most  for,  but  the  sight 
of  some  dull,  self-satisfied  Mongol  heart,  broken 
down  by  the  power  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ? 
As  the  missionary  directs  all  his  energies  towards 
this  one  end,  he  finds  that  there  are  two  agencies 
of  a  personal  nature  through  which  he  may  hope  to 
succeed.  In  the  first  place,  he  appears  amongst 
these  strange  races  simply  as  a  witness  to  the  ex- 
13eriences  which  the  Christian  religion  has  brought 
to  himself.  Formal  preaching  is  of  no  avail,  regu- 
lar instruction  has  no  place,  until  some  have  been 
persuaded  and  have  entered  into  sympathy  with 
his  thought.  In  order  to  create  that  sympathy  he 
must  be  able  to  describe  and  bear  personal  testimo- 
ny to  certain  great  moral  and  spiritual  experiences 
whose  value  will  be  evident  or  can  be  made  evident 
to  his  heathen  auditors.  "  My  experience  of 
Christ"  is  the  text  of  all  his  preaching.  I  have 
heard  one  of  the  most  successful  missionaries  in 
India  say,  that  when  he  enters  a  new  village  and 
gathers  a  few  people  round  him,  he  begins  by  tell- 
ing them  what  Jesus  Christ  has  done  for  him  per- 

197 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

sonally.  It  is  his  peace  and  hope  and  love  felt 
toward  God,  his  assurance  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God, 
to  which  he  directs  attention.  Then  he  asks  them  if 
their  religion  has  done  that  for  them.  But,  in  the 
second  place,  his  teaching  must  receive  illumination 
from  his  own  character  and  life.  For,  as  it  has 
been  well  put,"  the  Moslem  must  first  find  Christ  in 
the  missionary,  before  he  can  find  Him  in  Jesus  of 
Nazareth."^  Here  in  a  Christian  land  we  are  per- 
haps able  to  distinguish  between  the  value  of  a 
minister's  teaching  and  that  of  his  personal  char- 
acter; we  have  learned  from  repeated  and  bitter  ex- 
perience not  to  make  the  truth  of  the  teaching  and 
its  influence  upon  our  hearts  to  depend  exclusively 
upon  its  fulfilment  by  the  preacher  himself.  And 
yet  who  has  not  felt  that  added  force  which  is  given 
to  the  exhortation  of  the  plainest  man,  when  we  real- 
ize that  his  own  character  and  life  accord  with  the 
ideal  which  he  is  urging  upon  us?  In  a  heathen 
land  they  are  unable  to  make  any  such  distinctions; 
the  missionary  must  himself  be  an  evidence  of 
Christianity.  He  must  reveal  the  Gospel  at  work; 
in  his  own  relations  with  the  natives,  he  must 
exemplify  the  relations  in  which  he  says  that  Jesus 
Christ  stands  towards  all  men.  The  mind  which 
was  in  Christ  must  be  also  obviously  in  him. 
The  result  may  be  that  the  heathen  come  first  of 
all  to  trust  him  as  their  friend  ere  they  can  be  con- 
vinced    that    his    friendliness    is     derived    from 


^  President     Washburn     in     "  Missions    at     Home    and 
Abroad."  p.  154. 

198 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

Another.  But  by  whatever  steps  the  native  mind 
may  move  towards  the  great  conclusion,  it  is  prac- 
tically impossible  that  a  man,  calling  himself  a  mis- 
sionary of  Christ,  who  is  notoriously  unlike  Him, 
should  lead  them  through  those  steps.  It  may  be  that 
the  conclusion  reached  is  after  all  not  that  which 
the  missionary  desires.  A  man  may  be  content  to 
say,  as  an  accomplished  Indian  Mohammedan  is  re- 
ported to  have  said, — "  I  think  Jesus  Christ  must 
have  been  a  wonderful  man.  He  must  have  been 
something  like  Mr.  Hewlett  of  Benares," — naming 
a  well=known  missionary.  But  whether  the  great 
desire  of  the  missionary  is  attained  or  not,  this  one 
thing  he  knows  is  essential  to  its  attainment,  that, 
amidst  the  many  disappointments  which  he  meets 
and  the  many  trials  of  his  patience,  he  should 
manifest  the  strong  self-control  and  sympathetic 
meekness  of  his  Master.  His  aim,  as  it  has  been 
well  expressed,  must  have  nothing  sectarian  in  it. 
This  too  is  part  of  the  character  which  he  must 
display,  viz.  the  charity  that  overpasses  differences 
of  opinion  with  his  fellow  Christians.  The  unity 
of  spirit  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  is  being  exer- 
cised in  so  inspiring  a  fashion  by  the  missionaries 
of  the  various  evangelical  denominations,  as  they 
work  together  in  foreign  lands,  is  essential  to 
the  task  of  winning  the  heathen  to  faith.  "  The 
true  aim  of  missionary  work,"  it  has  been  well  said, 
"  is  to  make  Christ  known  to  the  world.  Nothing 
is  foreign  to  this  work  which  reveals  His  spirit  or 
the  characteristics  of  His  Kingdom,  and  nothing 
199 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

is  essential  to  it  which  is  peculiar  to  a  sect,  a  class, 
or  a  civilization." ' 

These  facts  receive  their  best  illustration,  many- 
think,  in  the  work  and  influence  of  the  medical 
missionary.  This  department  of  missionary  en- 
terj)rise  has  developed  with  extraordinary  rapid- 
ity during  the  latter  half  of  this  century;  and  it  has 
proved  to  be  one  of  the  most  effective  weapons 
which  can  be  employed  in  the  heathen  world. 
Whereas  fifty  years  ago  they  were  exceedingly  fev>" 
and  far  between,  there  are  now  throughout  the 
world  over  four  hundred  fully  qualified  medical 
missionaries,  ninety  of  whom  are  women.  They, 
with  a  large  number  of  assistants,  are  said  to  treat 
more  than  a  million  persons  every  year.  In  India 
alone  there  are  eighty^seven  male  and  fifty-seven 
female  missionaries,  who  have  trained  and  employ 
one  hundred  and  sixty^eight  native  medical  assist- 
ants, and  who  carry  on  their  labors  in  connection 
with  forty- eight  hospitals  and  eighty^seven  dis- 
pensaries. It  is  unnecessary  to  enter  with  any 
detail  upon  the  significance  of  the  work  which  the 
medical  missionary  does.  He  himself  sees  in  his 
ministry  the  nearest  possible  human  approach  to 
that  of  Jesus.  This  healer  of  the  sick  means  not 
only  to  relieve  suffering,  but  in  doing  so  to  reveal 
the  grace  of  God,  to  touch  some  responsive  chord  in 
darkened  hearts  and  win  from  them  appreciation 
of  the  divine  love.  In  the  daily  work  carried  on 
amongst  innumerable  out^door  patients  the  opportu- 


^  President  Washburn    of   Constantinople,    in  "  Missions  at 
Home  and  Abroad,"  p.  164. 

200 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

nity  may  not  be  good  for  that  awakening  of  person- 
al and  intelligent  interest  in  Christian  experience; 
but  these  transient  patients  by  going  forth  to 
sound  abroad  the  praises  of  the  missionary's  skill 
and  the  missionary's  friendliness  do  valuable  work 
in  stimulating  the  interest  of  the  community  far 
and  wide.  It  is,  however,  amongst  those  who  be- 
come inmates  of  a  hospital,  or  whom  the  Christian 
doctor  is  able  to  treat  for  prolonged  periods  in  their 
homes,  that  the  greatest  results  are  obtained.  That 
mutual  understanding  and  sympathy  which  springs 
up  always  between  physician  and  patient  is  a  new 
experience  to  the  native.  The  fact  that  the 
medical  missionary  accepts  no  personal  reward  for 
his  exhausting  and  inexplicable  self-denial  is  a  new 
cause  of  wonder.  The  fact  that  most  of  these  cases 
are  serious,  that  the  sufferer  is  on  the  borderland 
between  life  and  death,  and  that  the  whole  problem 
of  existence  and  personal  responsibility  is  con- 
genial to  his  state  of  mind,  give  the  alert  and 
eager  herald  of  Christ  opportunity  for  bearing 
witness  to  the  name  of  his  Master  in  its  signifi- 
cance for  his  own  heart  and  for  the  destiny  of  all 
men.  The  results  which  flow  from  this  kind  of 
work  are  in  many  cases  most  startling.  Stories 
are  innumerable,  from  all  parts  of  the  world,  of 
the  effects  produced,  in  places  far  from  the  scene  of 
the  medical  mission,  by  the  example  and  teaching 
of  converts  who  have  gone  to  their  distant  homes 
from  its  hospital.  From  such  small  beginnings 
large  churches  have  grown,  new  mission  fields 
have  been  opened  up,  over  and  over  again. 

201 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Nowhere  has  the  work  of  the  medical  missionary 
been  more  beautifully  portrayed  than  by  Dr.  Post 
of  Beirut,  himself  one  of  the  most  successful 
physician=evangelists.  "  There  is  a  language,"  he 
says,  "  which  all  can  understand,  and  which  carries 
a  message  which  every  man  cares  sooner  or  later 
to  hear.  From  the  moment  the  medical  missionary 
sets  foot  on  his  chosen  field  he  is  master  of  this 
universal  language,  this  unspoken  tongue  of  the 
heart,  and  welcome  to  the  homes  of  strangers. 
The  simple  Arab  lifts  for  him  the  curtain  of  his 
goat's  hair  tent  and  bids  him  enter.  The  mandarin 
calls  him  to  his  palace,  the  peasant  begs  him  to 
come  to  his  lowly  cabin,  the  Brahmin  leads  him  to 
the  recesses  of  his  zenana.  He  stands  before 
kings,  and  governors  escort  him  with  squadrons  of 
cavalry,  or  take  him  to  and  fro  in  their  gunboats 
or  their  barges  of  state.  Kings  build  hospitals 
for  him,  and  the  rulers  of  the  earth  aid  him  with 
their  treasures  and  their  power.  .  .  .  You  take 
the  Bible  to  the  heathen,  and  he  may  spit  upon  it 
or  burn  it,  or  throw  it  aside  as  worthless  or  harm- 
ful. You  xDreach  the  Gospel  to  him,  and  he  may 
regard  you  as  a  hireling  who  makes  preaching  a 
trade.  He  may  meet  your  argum^ents  with  sophis- 
try, your  appeals  with  a  sneer.  You  educate  him 
and  he  may  change  from  a  heathen  to  an  infidel. 
But  heal  his  bodily  ailment  in  the  name  of  Christ 
and  you  are  sure  at  least  that  he  will  love  you  and 
bless  you,  and  that  all  you  say  will  have  to  him  a 
meaning  and  a  power  not  conveyed  by  other  lips."  * 

^  111  "MiBsions  at  Home  and  Abroad,"  pp.  316,  347. 
202 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

The  medical  missionary  seldom  or  never  allows 
himself  to  forget  that  his  life  has  been  given  to 
what  has  aptly  been  called  "  the  double  cure."  ^ 
He  is  appointed  to  heal  the  bodies  of  men  in  his 
hospital  as  a  missionary  of  Christ,  in  order  that 
through  the  avenues  of  sympathy  and  trust  thus 
opened,  he  may  be  able  to  secure  for  his  patients 
the  healing  of  the  deeper  and  more  dismal  diseases 
of  the  soul.  He  is  unfaithful  to  his  calling  if  the 
latter  is  neglected  under  the  stress  of  the  former 
labor.  Where  the  two  aspects  of  his  work  are  kept 
well  in  view,  and  arrangements  are  made  for  the 
wise  and  affectionate  instruction  of  the  inmates  of 
the  hospital,  the  number  of  converts  to  the  Chris- 
tian faith  is  often  very   great. 

One  of  the  most  striking  results  of  the  medical 
missionary  movement  has  been  that  through  the 
work  of  these  Christian  men  and  women  admission 
has  been  obtained  to  the  homes  of  the  noble  and  the 
wealthy  in  oriental  lands.  The  homes  of  the  Chinese 
dignitaries,  the  zenana  of  the  Brahmin  open  their 
doors, — uneasily,  it  may  be,  and  reluctantly  at 
first, — to  the  medical  missionary.  To  all  others  they 
are  sternly  closed  and  their  inmates  remain  beyond 
the  reach  of  Christian  teachers ;  but  when  the  stern 
demands  of  disease  or  the  approaching  horror  of 
the  shadow  of  death  have  compelled  the  patient 
and  the  anxious  relatives  alike  to  break  away  from 
tradition  and  invite  the  help  of  the  foreign  doctor, 
then  these  secluded  hearts  are  brought   within  the 

^  Life  of  Dr.    John    Kenneth    Mackenzie.     App.   IV.    pp. 
400  ff . 

203 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man     . 

sound  of  that  most  potent  moral  and  spiritual  in- 
fluence in  the  history  of  man,  the  story  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

When  the  missionary  by  means  of  his  personal 
testimony  and  teaching,  and  the  influence  of  his 
own  character  and  life,  has  won  some  converts  to  the 
faith  of  Jesus  Christ,  they  begin  to  live  the  life  of 
fellowship,  of  closer  intercourse  with  one  another 
in  the  brotherhood  of  an  organized  Church. 
When  the  life  of  such  a  young  community  begins 
to  manifest  its  own  features  in  a  heathen  land, 
one  fact  becomes  apparent  which  seems  to  be  of 
great  significance,  as  it  seems  to  be  of  a  unique 
character.  It  is  this,  that  the  religious  experience  of 
the  converts  from  heathendom  to-day  is,  in  all  essen- 
tials, identical  with  that  described  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  possessed  by  the  earliest  followers  of  the 
Apostolic  faith.  We  are  accustomed  to  hear  much 
said  concerning  the  enormous  developments  which 
have  taken  place  in  Church  life.  Emphasis  is  laid 
upon  the  difference  between  a  Cathedral  service  in 
London  and  the  service  in  a  little  room  or  a  syna- 
gogue which  Paul  may  have  conducted;  or  men 
contrast  him,  the  homeless  herald  of  Jesus  Christ 
who  gave  up  wealth  and  position,  with  a  well 
paid  minister  or  a  high  dignitary  of  modern 
evangelical  Christendom.  Or  again  a  contrast  is 
drawn  between  the  stately  and  dignified  intellec- 
tualism  or  the  refined  and  subtle  spiritual  teaching 
of  a  modern  sermon  and  that  sympathetic,  direct, 
passionate  and  brief  outburst  which  seems  to  have 
been  the  main  form  of   exhortation  amongst   the 

20t 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

primitive  Christians.  Some  profess  to  find  part  of 
the  secret  of  what  they  consider  to  be  a  deep  diver- 
gence from  primitive  Christianity  by  describing 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  as  expressing  the  true 
spirit  of  the  latter,  while  the  elaborate  creeds  of 
the  Church  are  said  to  be  the  fetters  which  have 
interfered  with  the  Church's  freedom  and  im- 
paired its  influence  over  man.  These  contrasts, 
whether  they  be  exaggerated  and  misleading  or 
not,  after  all  do  not  deal  with  the  substance  of 
Christian  experience.  The  modern  missionary 
movement  has  served  more  than  any  other  event 
to  make  this  manifest.  A  visit  to  these  fields  will 
reveal  phenomena  exactly,  sometimes  ludicrously, 
similar  to  certain  of  those  depicted  in  the  New 
Testament,  as  belonging  to  the  cruder  stages  of 
Church  life.  But  the  observer  and  student  of 
Christian  experience  cannot  escape  the  similarity 
which  there  is  between  the  deeper,  the  real  essence 
of  the  new  lif^  as  that  appears  to==day,  and  as  it 
appeared  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Then,  as 
to-day,  men  entered  into  the  consciousness  of  new 
lifethrough  the  narrow  gate  of  misery  about  their 
sin,  and  repentance;  then,  as  now,  men  became  per- 
suaded that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  appointed  Savior 
of  the  world  through  whom  deliverance  could  be 
obtained;  then,  as  now,  they  saw  in  His  cross  the 
supreme  ground  and  proof  of  the  mercy  of  God 
and  the  distress  of  man;  then,  as  now,  they  passed 
through  the  time  of  struggle  with  self  to  the  time 
of  trust;  then,  as  now,  they  received  what  we  call 
the   Holy   Spirit,  a   new   feeling    regarding    God 

205 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

swept  over  them ;  a  new  consciousness  concerning 
their  whole  condition  as  moral  and  responsible 
beings  was  awakened  within  them,  a  new  sense  of 
the  worth  of  man  filled  their  hearts,  a  kindlier  love 
for  him  who  is  their  brother  in  this  experience  and 
a  yearning  pity  for  the  men  who  have  tasted  it 
not,  were  borne  in  upon  them.  Then  as  now,  these 
fundamental  forms  of  Christian  experience,  in 
varying  proportions  but  in  essential  identity,  gave 
proof  to  tlie  Christian  converts  themselves  that 
God  had  taken  possession  of  their  hearts,  and 
roused  in  the  outside  world  a  feeling  either  of  awe 
or  contempt  mingled  with  wonder,  at  this  thing 
that  was  happening  amongst  men. 

To  put  the  matter  shortly,  it  may  be  said  that, 
the  same  ethical  and  religious  phenomena  are  be- 
ing produced  by  the  preaching  of  Jesus  Christ  as 
the  Savior  of  men  in  the  nineteenth  century  as 
in  the  first  century.  The  most  solemn,  and,  apart 
from  the  Gospel,  the  most  crushing  and  dismaying 
facts  are  turned  into  grounds  of  joy  and  awaken 
thoughts  of  triumph.  The  judgment  of  the  holy 
and  righteous  God,  the  sense  of  sin,  the  approach 
of  death  are  transmuted  in  their  significance  for 
the  Christian  heart.  The  dawn  of  faith,  the  quick- 
ening of  conscience,  the  inflow  of  joy,  the  outflow 
of  love,  the  experience  of  a  moral  energy,  —  these 
are  the  permanent  characteristics  of  the  Christian 
religion.  All  these  are  effects  which  everywhere 
follow  upon  the  preaching  of  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ.  That  this  preaching  is  conducted  in  vari- 
ous languages,  or  that  there  are  differences  of  stand- 

206 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

point  on  many  matters  more  or  less  important 
amongst  the  preachers  of  the  Gospel,  does  not  de- 
stroy the  identity  of  the  message  which  they  have 
presented  through  all  the  centuries  and  throughout 
the  world.  The  words  of  Jesus  and  His  apostles 
come  home  to  them  all  with  an  authority  before 
which  they  bow.  They  universally  find  in  Holy 
Writ  the  fittest  expressions  of  their  own  thoughts 
and  the  clearest  descriptions  of  their  own  experi- 
ence in  relation  to  God  and  eternal  life. 

These  facts  seem  to  demand  a  most  thorough 
investigation  even  from  those  who  deny  that  the 
Christian  faith  is  grounded  in  truth,  and  should 
receive  an  explanation  more  adequate  than  any 
which  has  yet  been  offered  to  us.  The  mere  denial 
that  the  Christian  faith  is  true  is  not  sufficient; 
the  scientific  task  remains.  And  that  task  consists 
in  explaining  how  these  religious  phenomena 
have  persisted  during  two  thousand  years,  how  it 
is  that  they  have  had  such  influence  over  the  de- 
velopment of  all  sides  of  European  civilization, 
and  how  it  is  that  to=day,  throughout  the  world, 
races  of  the  most  divergent  intellectual  and  religious 
types  are  being  brought  into  a  fundamental  unity 
of  religious  life  by  the  same  means.  This  is  the 
effect  of  the  work  of  missionaries,  as  the  saviors 
of  men.  Their  intense  passion  for  what  they  call 
'  saving  the  lost '  lies  behind  this  movement,  and 
the  movement  is  successful  in  their  eyes  only  in  so 
far  as  they  behold  individual  men  and  women 
brought  into  this  religious  relation  to  Jesus  Christ, 
and  through  Him  to  the  living  God, 
207 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

It  is  this  rehgious  element  which,  both  as  the 
cause  of  the  missionary's  devotion  and  the  center  of 
the  native  convert's  nev/  experience  and  new  insight, 
is  the  spring  of  all  those  events  and  changes,  so 
innumerable,  so  varied,  so  vitally  important  for  the 
history  of  mankind,  which  we  call  the  missionary 
movement.  No  theory  can  possibly  explain  either 
the  rise  of  that  movement  or  its  remarkable  results 
which  does  not  give  full  weight  to  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  missionary, — for  this  alone 
gives  him  at  once  his  motive  and  his  aim, — and  to 
the  religious  consciousness  of  the  convert,  which 
constitutes  the  missionary's  triumph  and  is  the 
seed  of  progress. 

In  the  missionary  fields  of  the  evangelical 
churches,  it  is  the  universal  custom  to  baptize  and 
to  receive  formally  as  communicants  only  those 
who  have  become  the  subjects  of  this  religious 
experience.  Not  because  they  have  been  taught 
in  the  schools  or  have  been  healed  by  medical  mis- 
sionaries, not  because  they  have  adopted  European 
clothing  or  enlarged  their  houses,  or  have  tried  to 
use  any  other  of  the  personal  and  domestic  adjuncts 
of  civilized  life,  are  they  added  to  the  Church. 
To-day,  as  in  the  earliest  weeks  of  the  Church's 
life,  those  that  are  being  added  are  those  that  give 
evidence  that  they  are  "  being  saved."  As  this  is 
the  aim  of  the  missionary's  labor,  it  is  the  starting^ 
point  of  the  Church's  life  in  these  lands.  When 
a  few  converts  have  been  gathered  and  organized, 
then  the  spread  of  Christianity  in  that  region 
assumes  more  or  less  distinctly  the  form  which  it 

208 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

has  attained  in  older  lands,  viz.,  that  of  self^prop- 
agation  through  local  communities.  The  members 
of  the  Church  are  banded  together  for  aggressive 
purposes.  Whether  the  community  ignores  them 
or  not,  they  never  ignore  the  community.  They 
stand  together  and  labor  individually  and  col- 
lectively for  the  furtherance  of  the  Gospel.  The 
history  of  the  Church  is  continuous  from  the  days 
of  the  apostles  to  the  formation  of  the  latest  little 
group  of  disciples  in  central  Africa  or  central 
China.  From  community  to  community  the  light 
has  spread,  and  from  each  community  it  shines 
out  upon  the  surrounding  world.  The  ambition 
of  the  missionary  Churches  of  Christendom  is  to 
see  the  Church  of  Christ  so  established  and  devel- 
oped in  India  and  China  and  Africa,  and  in  all 
other  parts  of  the  earth,  that  at  last  the  word  "  foreign 
missionary  "  shall  cease  to  have  a  meaning.  The 
Church  will  have  become  as  truly  indigenous  in  all 
those  lands  as  it  now  seems  to  be  in  Germany  or 
England  or  in  the  United  States  of  America.  No 
earthly  force  or  organization  is  at  work  seeking  this 
end;  no  temporal  ambition  or  scheme  whether  of  ec- 
clesiastical politicians  or  statesmanlike  dignitaries 
will  account  for  the  self^propagation  of  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  It  is  a  spontaneous,  perpetual,  irre- 
pressible outflow  of  its  deepest  life.  What  is  the 
law  of  the  spread  of  this  communion  of  believers, 
as  they  love  to  call  it,  throughout  the  world? 
Surely,  in  the  extraordinary  phenomena  which  are 
before  our  eyes  in  the  mission  fields  of  the  world, 
evidence  can  be  discovered  which  suggests  or  com- 

209 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

pels  the  right  and  inevitable  conclusion.  The 
old  formulae  of  Gibbon  in  his  description  of  the 
spread  of  the  early  Church,  although  true  in  part, 
are  inadequate  for  the  statement  of  this  law.  No 
mere  assumption  that  these  phenomena  belong  to 
the  realm  of  superstition,  and  that  therefore  the 
sober  mind  and  advanced  thinker  may  afford  to 
despise  them,  can  possibly  be  treated  with  respect 
to-day.  The  spread  of  the  Church  in  our  day  has 
been  characterized  by  many  of  the  same  features 
which  are  familiar  to  the  student  of  the  first  Chris- 
tian centuries.  The  same  power  which  gave  it  the 
victory  over  the  heathen  world  of  those  times  must 
be  the  secret  of  its  triumphant  progress  to-day. 
Many  depreciate  its  victories  by  pointing  to  the 
unworthy  life  of  some  of  its  converts  and  adherents 
in  Christian  and  heathen  lands.  This  unworthiness 
is  undeniable  and  deplorable,  but  it  only  makes  the 
victory  the  more  remarkable.  Professor  Sohm,  in 
his  vivid  little  book,  the  "  Outlines  of  Church  His- 
tory," has  described  the  matter  with  so  much  elo- 
quence and  authority  that  I  cannot  refrain  from 
quoting  the  following  passage  in  full:  ''And  yet 
"  the  Church  has  remained  unconquerable.  The 
"  marvel  of  Christianity  and  its  grandest  achieve- 
"ment  is  just  this:  that  it  could  not  be  destroyed, 
"  that  it  won  the  victory  although  so  miserably  rep- 
"  resented  by  its  followers.  Apostasy,  weakness, 
"  and  sin  have  had  no  power  to  destroy  the  imperish- 
"  able  strength  of  Christianity.  It  became  secular- 
"  ized,  yet  it  still  remained  a  leaven  to  leaven  the 
3XQ 


The  Missionary  as  Savior 

**  whole  world.  It  was  betrayed  by  a  large  ^  nuniber 
"  of  its  followers  yet  there  abode  within  it  that 
"  spirit  which,  in  one  little  band  of  the  chosen,  in 
"spite  of  sin  and  error,  was  powerful  enough  to 
"  overcome  the  world,  and,  through  its  glorious  ex- 
"  ample  of  martyrdom,  to  arouse  the  spirit  of  resist- 
"  ance  even  in  the  ranks  of  the  lukewarm,  the  waver- 
"  ing  and  the  faint.  By  this  time  Christianity  was 
"  no  more  that  unknown  religion  against  which  the 
"  falsest  and  most  hideous  scandals  were  circulated 
"  and  believed  (as  in  the  first  and  second  centuries). 
"  The  spirit  of  Christianity  had  become  visible  and 
"  it  stretched  forth  its  sheltering  wing  over  its  fol- 
"  lowers.  .  .  .  Already,  not  only  were  the  convic- 
"  tions  of  the  best  minds  of  the  age  opposed  to  the 
"  State,  but  it  had  against  it  the  whole  of  the  spiri- 
"  tual  power  wherewith  Christianity  (once  seen  as  it 
"truly  is)  influences  even  the  outer  world.  The 
"  spiritual  power  was  made  manifest  and  developed 
"  all  its  forces  to  the  utmost,  in  spite  of  the  weak- 
"  ness  of  its  followers.  Through  all  the  shades  and 
"  darkness  which  surround  us  in  the  history  of  the 
"  Christian  Church,  there  breaks  forth  evermore 
"  victorious — like  the  sun  going  forth  in  his 
"  strength,  rending  the  clouds  asunder  and  gleam- 
"  ing  through  the  rift,  now  in  one  place  now  in  an- 
"  other— the  imperishable  light  of  true  Christian- 


^The  Translation  which  I  use  here  says,  "by  the  greater 
number."  Prof.  Sohm  in  6th,  7th,  and  8th,  Edd.  says,  "Von 
einer  grossen  Zahl." 

211 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

**ity.  So  it  was  then.  The  Church  conquered, 
"not  because  of  the  Christians,  but  in  spite  of 
"  them — through  the  power  of  the  Gospel."  ^  Now 
the  Gospel  is  the  announcement  that  men  may 
have  individual  and  collective  fellowship  with  God 
through  faith  in  Jesus  Christ.  The  experience 
which  that  announcement  is  spreading  among  men 
is  the  one  great  aim  for  which  the  missionary 
labors  as  a  savior  of  men,  and  from  that  experience 
all  the  great  branches  of  the  tree  of  human  prog- 
ress draw  their  life,  their  nourishment  and  their 
fruitage. 


^  Rudolph  Sohm,  in  "  Outlines  of  Church  History,"  pp.  21-22. 
212 


CHAPTER   X. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  THE  PROGRESS 

OF  MAN. 

It  is  not  at  all  a  simple  task  to  describe  what  is 
meant  by  "The    Progress    of   Man."       The  idea 
floats  hazily   before   our   eyes,  and   we   all  speak 
of  it  very  confidently  as  well  as  very  constantly; 
but  we  do  not  find  it  easy  to  name  its  elements  and 
conditions.     It   seems  natural  to  speak  of  it  when 
we  are  discussing  certain  aspects  of  social  change 
or  national  expansion,  and  specific  forms  of  prog- 
ress can  be  easily  selected  and  named.     For  ex- 
ample, it  is  no  doubt  a  form  of  progress  that  we 
should  be  able  to  travel  at  sixty  instead  of  six  miles 
an  hour.     It  is  also  progress  in  the  eyes  of  many 
that  our  legislators  in  city  and  nation  should  be 
chosen  directly  by  the  people.     It  is  also  progress 
that  each  morning  our  newspaper  should  lie  on  the 
breakfast  table,  putting  the   news  of   the  world's 
chief  events  during  the  previous  twenty-four  hours 
before  us.     To  name  the  printing-press  and  elec- 
tricity and  steamships   and  representative  govern- 
ment and  popular  education,  is  to  name  the  signs 
and   the    proofs   of  some  kind    of  progress.     But 
when  we  have  named  them  all  separately,  can  we 
put  them   all  together   into  one  concept,  and  say 
exactly  wherein  the  progress  of  man  consists?     A 
recent  writer  repeats  with  emphasis  and  frequency 

213 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

that  "  Evolution  is  universal  but  progress  very- 
rare."^  It  becomes  us  therefore  to  ask  by  what 
signs  we  are  to  recognize  progress,  and  to  distin- 
guish that  form  of  evolution  which  promises  an 
endless,  or  at  least  a  real,  advance  from  those  forms 
which  have  passed'  or  are  destined  to  pass  away,  as 
mere  oscillations  in  human  history. 

There  are  three  conditions,  two  of  which  must 
be  fulfilled  ere  there  can  be  progress  in  any  section 
of  the  race,  and  the  third  of  which  must  be  added 
ere  we  can  speak  of  the  progress  of  man  as  a  whole. 

It  must  be  evident,  to  begin  with,  that  evolution 
implies,  as  Mr  Spencer  has  so  fully  argued  in  his 
essay  on  "  Universal  Progress, "  the  elaboration  of 
social  relations.  There  are  those  who  feel  impa- 
tient at  the  intricate  and  almost  bewildering  mul- 
tiplication of  functions  which  has  been  going  on 
in  the  body  politic  during  the  very  rapid  changes 
of  this  century.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  divi- 
sion results  from  the  vast  increase  of  work  which  is 
now  needed  to  meet  the  demands  of  accumulating 
population  and  to  disseminate  the  benefits  of 
mechanical  inventions.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  a 
question  whether  this  growing  complexity  itself, 
the  mere  subdivision  of  functions  in  society,  is  the 


^"Introduction  to  the  History  of  Keligion,'*  by  J.  B.  Jevons, 
page  5.  Compare  with  Mr.  Jevons's  form  of  statement,  the 
late  Walter  Bagehot's  words  in  his  essay  on  "  Verifiable  Prog- 
ress ": — "  A  stationary  state  is  by  far  the  most  frequent  condi- 
tion of  man,  as  far  as  history  describes  that  condition;  the 
progressive  state  is  only  a  rare  and  an  occasional  exception." 
TFor/es(American  ed.)  Vol.  IV,  pp.  583. 
214 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

exact  essence  of  man's  progress.  Mr.  Spencer's  es- 
say does  not  seem  to  meet  that  problem.  He  sim- 
ply assumes  that  the  increasing  "  coherent  hetero- 
geneity "  of  the  organs  of  life,  which  is  the  mark  of 
organic  evolution,  is  the  fundamental  characteristic 
of  social  progress.  Mr.  Spencer's  words  are;  "It 
is  settled  beyond  all  dispute  that  organic  progress 
consists  in  a  change  from  the  homogeneous  to  the 
heterogeneous."  "  The  law  of  organic  progress  is 
the  law  of  all  progress."  "  The  evolution  of  the 
simple  into  the  complex,  through  successive  differ- 
entiations holds  throughout."  ^  We  need  not  de- 
spair of  some  day  seeing  this  advance  in  the  com- 
plexity of  social  life  traced  to  man's  moral  nature 
and  even  to  his  religious  instincts;  so,  its  place 
in  the  idea  of  progress  will  be  more  clearly  defined 
than  has  been  done  or  attempted  by  Mr.  Spencer. 
If  we  conceive  of  a  tribe  of  people  as  living, 
unwarlike  and  in  the  enjoyment  of  a  comparatively 
simple  organization,  a  change  in  the  condition  of 
its  life  can  only  occur  in  one  of  two  ways.  Either 
the  advent  of  strangers  with  a  higher  form  of  civili- 
zation will  at  once  begin  to  break  up  and  alter  its 
organization,  or  the  rise  of  fresh  ambitions  from 
within  will  have  the  same  effect.  The  organization 
of  many  an  African  or  Polynesian  tribe  is  being 
affected  in  the  former  way  to=day.  The  organiza- 
tion of  English  social  life  was  affected  in  the  latter 
way  by  the  awakening  which  followed  the  intro- 
duction of  steam  engines.     In  the  former  case  the 


*  "  Universal  Progress."     By  Herbert  Spencer.     (D.  Apple- 
ton  and  Co.  N.  Y.)  pp  3  flf. 

215 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

tribe  usually  becomes  demoralized,  and  what  is 
called  'decadent,'  unless  there  come,  along  with 
the  new  social  demands,  higher  personal  character 
to  meet  them.  The  ordinary  unchristianized,  that 
is  unmoralized,  native  cannot  as  a  matter  of  fact 
sustain  the  stress  put  upon  him  by  the  more  elab- 
orate social  system  which  is  growing  around  him. 
We  are  apt  to  blame  the  native  thus  placed  for 
lack  of  intelligence,  whereas  what  is  wrong  is  the 
lack  of  that  sense  of  responsibility,  that  moral 
courage,  that  self^^resi^ect  which  would  enable  him 
to  take  a  definite  place  and  fulfil  a  real  function, 
however  humble,  in  the  life  of  the  reorganized 
social  system.  It  is  the  absence  of  moral  qualities 
which  keeps  the  Zulu  unprogressive,  nay  which 
makes  him  seem  to  be  more  of  an  animal  than 
before,  when  a  civilized  government  has  taken 
charge  of  his  tribe  and  himself. 

But  the  connection  between  growth  in  social  or- 
ganization— coherent  heterogeneity  of  social  func- 
tions— and  moral  character  may  be  seen  still  more 
clearly  by  watching  the  experience  of  large  cities 
in  America,  where  great  masses  of  immigrant  peo- 
ple with  innumerable  forms  of  social,  family  and 
and  religious  traditions  are  thrown  together  and 
compelled  to  organize  themselves  into  a  civilized 
community.  The  evidence  proves  beyond  all  possi- 
bility of  refutation  that,  when  the  city  is  governed 
by  unprincipled  men,  mostly  saloonkeepers,  the 
government  assumes  an  oligarchic  form.  The  so= 
called  political  parties  fall  into  the  hands  of  a  few 
men,   who  practically  reelect  themselves   or  kin- 

216 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

dred  spirits  year  after  year.     The  democratic  form 
of    government    is    then    really    in    a    state    of 
suspended    animation,    having    a    name    to    hve, 
say,    on    the    Fourth    of    July.      The     result    is 
this,  that  the   differentiation  of  civic  functions  is 
arrested  or  hindered  in  its   growth.     Men  are  ap- 
pointed to  offices  who  are  not  fitted  for  them  and 
who  are  liable  to   dismissal  at   the  next  election. 
Hence  there  is  inefficient  work  done.     The  organ- 
ization does  not  grow,  functions  are  not  differenti- 
ated,  to   meet  the  ever-growing  life  of  the  social 
organism.     Streets  are  allowed  to  remain  in  disre- 
pair   which  ought  to  be  repaved,   refuse  accumu- 
lates to  the  danger  of  health,  crime  increases  so  that 
burglary   insurance    companies  may  refuse   to  do 
business  in  such  a  city,  bribery  and  corruption  lay 
their  hands  so  heavily  on  business  that  some  men 
try  to  move  their  concerns  out  of  it.     If  this  pro- 
cess  were  allowed  to   go  on  indefinitely   no  city 
could    fail  to   be   utterly  ruined.     Happily    these 
American  cities  have  a  very  great  amount  of  civic 
enthusiasm  which,  while  generally  torpid,  is  aroused 
at  times  to  speak  and  act  so  that  the  worst  events 
are  prevented,  and  progress  of  a  retarded  degree  is 
maintained  pretty  steadily. 

What  I  have  meant  to  say  is  this,  that  the  increase 
of  organization,  which  for  Mr.  Spencer  seems  to 
constitute  progress,  cannot  be  the  ultimate  fact 
since  it  appears  to  be  absolutely  dependent  upon 
growth  of  character.  And  the  experience  of,  say. 
New  York  and  Chicago,  proves  that,  first,  failure 
in  the  character  of  its  rulers  tends  evidently  to  dis- 

217 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

locate  the  organization  of  the  city  and  so  hinders 
that  differentiation  of  functions  which,  I  prefer  to 
Qay,  marks  progress:  while,  secondly,  the  demand 
for  better  organization — which  to  a  large  extent 
and  necessarily  takes  the  form  of  the  civil  service 
movement,  because  that  best  secures  differentia- 
tion of  functions — always  begins  by  securing  mor- 
ally decent  legislators,  and  always  springs  from 
citizens  of  high  character  and  religious  faith. 

There  is  another  aspect  of  man's  evolution  which 
we  must  look  at,  namely,  the  great  and  wonderful 
power  which  has  been  gained  over  nature. 
The  effects  of  man's  continuous  triumph  over  the 
forces  of  the  physical  world  are  most  varied.  The 
most  obvious  results  are  the  increase  of  the  wealth 
of  the  average  citizen  in  Europe  and  America,  and 
the  spread  of  luxury  through  the  community. 
Only  the  least  thoughful  will  be  likely  to  insist 
that  these  things  form  the  essence  of  progress. 
And  yet  it  would  be  almost  equally  thoughtless  to 
say  that  ihey  have  nothing  to  do  with  it.  When 
one  thinks  of  the  marvelous  scientific  attainments 
of  the  last  few  centuries,  the  daring  which  con- 
ceived and  the  thrilling  genius  which  has  accom- 
plished the  binding  of  all  lands  together  by  ocean 
cables  and  steamships  and  railroads,  which  speak 
now  of  regulating  the  fall  of  heaven's  rain  and  of 
sailing  through  the  air  as  safely  and  more  swiftly 
than  upon  the  waters — when  we  think  of  these  things 
we  can  hardly  resist  the  conclusion  that  man's  tri- 
umph over  nature  constitutes  another,  the  second, 
essential  element  in  that  which  we  call  his  progress. 

218 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

The  facts  become  ahuost  startling  when  we  realize 
that  through  his  power  over  her  forces,  nature  has 
become  in  a  new  and  most  real  manner  an  exten- 
sion of  man's  self.  In  earliest  days  his  self  was 
absorbed  in  nature,  lost  he  seemed  to  be  amid  the 
whirl  of  irresistible  and  inscrutable  forces.  Then 
the  consciousness  of  war  awoke,  when  man's  soul 
seemed  to  be  striving  against  a  world  peopled  with 
evil  powers;  that  was  the  age  of  crushing  supersti- 
tions, of  witchcraft  and  incantations.  Then  grad- 
ually nature  began  to  be  understood  and  conquered. 
The  forces  that  hitherto  only  appalled  began  to 
be  used  and  once  more  nature  seems  to  be  a  part 
of  man's  self,  her  forces  the  instruments  of  his  pur- 
pose. Has  this  progress  in  science  and  the  practi- 
cal arts  any  living  connection  with  morality  and  re- 
ligion? 

I  believe  it  can  be  proved  that  science  owes 
her  deepest  and  most  influential  conceptions,  those 
which  have  most  profoundly  given  her  life  and 
health,  to  religion,  nay  even  to  theology.  Science 
is  the  daughter  not  only  of  faith  but  of  theolog- 
ical discussions.  It  is  the  habit  of  some  more  talk- 
ative and  self-conscious  wooers  of  that  popular 
maiden  to  deny  her  descent  or  deride  her  mother. 
But  the  mother  is  very  patient  and,  for  all  her  occa- 
sional scoldings,  loves  her  offspring.  Tlie  wiser 
students  of  nature,  and  they  in  sufficient  numbers 
through  every  generation,  own  the  deep  connec- 
tion that  exists  between  progress  in  science  and 
faith  in  the  illuminating  ideals,  the  glorious  reali- 
ties, of  the  spiritual  world. 
219 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

The  question  can  be  dealt  with  in  a  more  con- 
crete way.  The  triumphs  of  science  are  of  two 
kinds,  theoretical  and  practical,  and  progress  in 
both  kinds  is  very  closely  allied  with  character, 
with  the  moral  condition  of  society.  It  is  well 
known  that  the  men  who  have  done  most  as  inves- 
tigators of  nature  have  almost  invariably  borne 
high  personal  characters.  They  have  been  clean 
and  straightforward,  courageous  men.  The  fact  is 
that  no  other  kind  of  man  can  go  far  in  the  pur- 
suit of  any  science.  When  his  departures  from 
rectitude  become  serious  and  habitual  they  wreck 
his  work,  almost  as  soon  as  they  wreck  that  of  a 
minister  of  religion.  But  further,  it  is  obvious 
that  when  science  becomes  practical  her  triumphs 
become  immediately  connected  with  the  moral 
condition  of  the  community.  At  once,  for  exam- 
ple, there  is  a  demand  for  increased  numbers  of 
specialists  in  various  forms  of  skilled  labor, — the 
differentiation  of  social  functions.  Every  fresh  in- 
vention demands  and  effects  a  reorganization  of 
society  more  or  less  extensive  according  to  its  im- 
portance. But  the  multiplication  of  departments, 
as  we  have  already  seen,  depends  upon  the  moral 
character  of  the  community  and  of  the  rulers  whom 
it  elects.  For  example,  the  holders  of  a  monopoly 
in  a  city  can  by  means  of  bribery,  prevent  the 
adoption  of  some  improved  means  of  transit  or 
illumination  which  would  interfere  with  their 
profits.  We  know  that  where  a  sweating  system 
prevails,  invention  is  retarded;  honest  payment  for 
honest  work  stimulates  invention.     And  similarly 

220 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

we  know  that  if  a  community  become  very  careful 
about  protecting  the  rights  of  working  men  and 
women  and  children,  the  extra  demands  thus  made 
upon  employers  tend  always  to  improve  machinery, 
and  so  to  cheapen  manufactures,  and  so  to  increase 
the  material  welfare  of  the  community. 

We  are  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  the  fact, 
not  that  material  wealth  is  progress,  but  that  prog- 
ress in  the  widest  and  fullest  sense  must  include 
that  mastery  of  the  forces  of  nature  which  pro- 
duces material  wealth.  It  seems  also  clear  that 
this  advance  in  science  is  closely  dependent  upon 
progress  in  the  moral  character  of  the  community. 

The  third  condition  of  universal  human  progress 
remains  to  be  named.  The  progress  which  we 
hope  for  and  whose  nature  we  are  trying  to  under- 
stand is  the  progress  of  man,  of  the  race  as  such. 
We  are  not  concerned  with  this  or  that  nation, 
whether  ancient  or  modern,  and  its  supremacy 
over  others  in  this  or  that  direction.  Many  great 
nations  have  fallen  into  decay,  many  types  of 
civilization  have  been  more  or  less  completely  ob- 
literated, because  they  lacked  something  which 
would  have  enabled  them  to  absorb  and  elevate 
the  savage  hordes  who  overwhelmed  them.  Som^ 
types  have  reached  a  certain  height  and  then 
ceased  to  make  progress,  evidently  because  they, 
too,  lacked  something  which  would  have  carried 
them  further  on.  A  new  vision  and  a  new  hope 
have  been  slowly  dawning  on  our  inapprehensive 
minds.  The  vision  is  that  of  all  nations  drawn 
irresistibly  into  one  common  life;  the  hope  is  that 
221 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man. 

the  forces  which  make  the  nations  one  will  prove 
adequate  to  secure  a  iDermanent  progress.  The 
nineteenth  century  opened  when  that  vision  was 
before  few  if  any  minds,  whether  of  poet  or  saint. 
Men  could  not  think  of  the  one  life  of  mankind, 
with  Africa  an  unknown  darkness,  India  in  jDris- 
tine  disorder,  China  enjoying  still  her  ancient 
slumber  and  her  impenetrable  dreams,  Polynesia 
but  a  number  of  scattered  spots  of  human  degra- 
dation in  the  Pacijfic  ocean.  To=day  we  are  gazing 
on  the  rapid  realization  of  the  unity  of  mankind  in 
commerce,  politics,  education  and  religion.  These 
forces  are  daily  increasing  the  communion  of  all 
parts  of  the  world  with  one  another  and  deepening 
the  interdependence  of  all  races  and  nations. 

Now  this  feature  of  history  is  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance for  our  right  understanding  of  the  prog- 
ress of  man.  Without  this  fellowship  of  all 
peoples  the  progress  made  by  any  portion  of  man- 
kind must  be  incomplete  and  its  permanence 
uncertain.  All  must  at  last  go  forward  together  if 
any  may  claim  that  they  are  moving  toward  the 
ideal.  The  brotherhood  of  man  as  an  actual  fact 
is  essential  to  the  real  and  endless  advance  of 
humanity. 

So  far  we  have  seen  that  the  growth  of  social 
organization,  of  power  over  nature,  and  of  the 
unity  of  all  nations,  are  essential  to  a  true  concep- 
tion of  the  progress  of  man.  We  have  also  seen 
that  these  forms  of  advance  are  all  closely  depend- 
ent upon  what  we  have  called  character.  What 
does  that  mean? 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Writers  who  occupy  such  divergent  standpoints 
as  T.  H.  Green  and  M.  Elisee  Keclus  agree  in  lay- 
ing much  emiDhasis  ui)on  character  as  necessary  to 
a  true  theory  of  progress.  Says  the  former:  "  The 
Spiritual  progress  of  mankind  is  thus  an  unmean- 
ing X3hrase,  unless  it  means  a  progress  of  personal 
character  and  io  personal  character — a  x^rogress  of 
which  feeling,  thinking,  and  willing  subjects  are 
the  agents  and  sustainers,  and  of  which  each  step 
is  a  fuller  realization  of  the  capacities  of  such  sub- 
jects. It  is  simply  unintelligible  unless  under- 
stood to  be  in  the  direction  of  more  perfect  forms 
of  personal  life."  Green  makes  another  remark 
which  shows  that  he  does  not  think  of  "  spiritual 
progress  "  as  simply  one  among  other  aspects  or 
forms  of  progress.  "  If  it  were  not  for  certain 
demands  of  the  spirit  which  is  ourselves,  the 
notion  of  human  progress  could  never  occur  to 
us."  ^  M.  Reclus  puts  the  matter  in  the  following 
way  in  a  recent  article:  Progress  "ought  above  all 
to  be  understood  as  a  complete  development  of  the 
individual,  comprehending  the  improvement  of  the 
physical  being  in  strength,  beauty,  grace,  lon- 
gevity, material  enrichment,  and  increase  of  knowl- 
edge— in  fine,  the  perfecting  of  character,  the  be- 
coming more  noble,  more  generous  and  more 
devoted.  So  considered,  the  progress  of  the 
individual  is  identified  with  that  of  society,  united 
more  and  more  intimately  in  a  powerful  solidarity."^ 

1  T.  H.  Green's  "Prolegomena  to  Ethics."     p.  195. 

2  Article  on  "Progress"    in    Contemporary   Review.     Dec. 
1896,  p.  762. 

223 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

And  yet  again,  Professor  Huxley  says  with  equal 
emphasis  that  "Social  progress  means  a  checking 
of  the  cosmic  process  at  every  step  and  the  substi- 
tution for  it  of  another  which  may  be  called  the 
ethical  process."  ^  These  thinkers,  working  from  very 
different  philosophical  and  religious  standpoints, 
arrive  unanimously  at  the  conviction  that  the  moral 
life  of  man  is  the  region  where  we  may  find  at  once 
the  source,  the  essence,  and  the  test  of  progress. 
We  have  been  in  part  helped  to  understand  or  at  any 
rate  to  see  this  in  preceding  paragraphs.  We  have 
found  not  only  that  the  three  main  elements  and 
collateral  results  of  progress,  viz.,  the  elaboration 
of  social  relations,  the  triumph  over  nature,  and  the 
unification  of  the  race,  are  naturally  connected  and 
very  largely  interdependent  but  that,  each  and  all, 
they  are  in  some  vital  manner  dependent  upon 
"  character."  If  now  we  would  push  our  inquiry 
further  and  ask  what  we  mean  by  "  character," 
why  progress  in  that  should  be  progress  itself 
and  should  secure  a  correlative  progress  in  other 
directions,  we  find  ourselves  face  to  face  with 
another  of  the  most  elusive  and  yet  fascinating 
of  problems.  We  can  only  deal  with  a  small  sec- 
tion of  it  here. 

Manifestly,  when  we  speak  of  ''  character  "  or  of 
"the  ethical  process  "  we  are  thinking  of  good  char- 
acter, or  of  a  process  through  which  higher  person- 
al relations  are  being  arrived  at  and  realized  by  any 


^Huxley's  "Evolution  and   Ethics."  p.  81.    (Appleton   and 
Co.  N.  Y.) 

224 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

community.  The  members  of  a  group  of  people, 
whether  a  little  tribe  or  a  great  nation,  are  pos- 
sessed of  the  conviction  that  certain  habits  of  life, 
towards  which  it  is  easy  to  drift,  are  disgraceful 
and  dangerous,  and  that  certain  other  kinds  of  con- 
duct or  personal  relationship  are  pure  and  noble. 
If  the  average  man  in  the  community  is  unable  to 
speak  definitely  of  these  moral  ideals  as  ideals,  not 
having  had  the  training  or  the  meditative  ca- 
pacity to  think  of  them,  he  is  conscious  of  their 
attraction  or  repulsion  as  a  kind  of  feeling  or 
social  instinct.  There  are,  however,  men  and  wom- 
en to  be  found  in  almost  every  community  whose 
work  it  is  to  propagate  throughout  the  social 
system  an  enthusiasm  for  these  ideals  and  a  sense 
of  their  high  and  indisputable  authority. 

It  will  be  found  of  course  that  the  ideals  which  any 
group  of  people  cherish,  are  very  closely  connected 
with  their  material  welfare  or  even  with  their  very 
existence  as  a  community.  In  early  Rome,  for 
example,  the  conditions  of  life  were  such  that  the 
city  could  only  live  by  maintaining  certain  strict 
and  noble  laws  of  family  and  civic  life.  The  em- 
phasis which  they  laid  upon  filial  reverence,  making 
it  almost  the  equivalent  of  religion,  upon  womanly 
dignity,  sobriety  and  purity,  upon  manly  patriotism, 
was  the  result  of  brooding  not  upon  abstract  ethics, 
but  upon  the  immediate  necessities  of  the  com- 
munity. But  the  stern  insistence  upon  these  vir- 
tues, which  elevated  them  from  mere  rules  of  exped- 
iency into  authoritative  ideals,  did  more  than  merely 
preserve  the  community.  They  secured  its  progress. 

225 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Pure  families  sent  forth  disciplined  men  into  senate 
and  battlefield.  The  increase  of  the  citizens  in  num- 
ber and  power  flowed  from  and  yet  also  stimulated 
the  qualities  which  made  the  growth  of  civic  or- 
ganization possible.  Where  men  can  be  trusted 
progress  is  inevitable.  Trustworthiness  is  the 
deejpest  fact  in  God;  it  is  the  root  or  all  movement 
towards  an  ideal,  alike  in  Himself  and  in  His  in- 
telligent creatures.  In  that  little  city  of  Rome  men 
could  be  trusted  as  husbands,  as  fathers,  as  sons,  as 
soldiers,  as  rulers;  and  that  central  moral  condition 
led  them  to  cherish  various  detailed  virtues  and  to 
meet  the  demands  for  faithful  service  which  pros- 
perity and  growth    made  upon  them. 

When  we  speak  then  of  character  as  the  root  and 
secret  of  social  progress  we  must  think,  first,  of  the 
possession  of  high  moral  ideals  and,  secondly,  of 
personal  loyalty  in  their  pursuit;  the  citizens  accept 
certain  virtues  as  of  binding  authority  and  can  de- 
pend on  one  another  to  aim  at  their  fulfilment.  When 
that  mutual  confidence  begins  to  disappear  through- 
out large  sections  of  a  community  decay  sets  in. 

Few  if  any  thinkers  would  now  dispute  the 
assertion  that  religion  has  been  always  vitally  con- 
nected with  social  morality.  All  efforts  to  imagine 
mankind  in  a  pre^religious  condition  are  failures; 
and  hence  all  efforts  to  describe  the  rise  of  a  social 
state  without  the  influence  of  religion  are  equally 
futile.  The  fact  is  as  Kaftan  has  well  put  it: 
"  The  question  as  to  the  historical  origin  of  religion 
is  inseparable  from  those  others  which  deal  witli 
the  beginnings  of  the  human  race  or  with  the  ori- 

226 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

gin  of  all  that  which,  like  speech  and  morality  and 
objective  knowledge,  is  along  with  religion  distinct- 
ive of  man."  ^  You  can  as  soon  conceive  mankind 
speechless  as  irreligious.  Various  attempts  have 
been  recently  made  to  describe  the  exact  function 
which  religion  exerts  in  the  social  organism.  Every 
one  feels,  as  Professor  Huxley  did,  ^  the  difficul- 
ty of  accounting  for  the  transition  from  the  al- 
most pure  individualism  of  the  animal  state  to  the 
moral  life  of  mankind.  The  cosmic  process  de- 
mands that  the  individual  organism  shall  maintain 
its  own  existence;  human  society  demands  that  a 
man  shall  sacrifice  his  pleasure  and  even  some- 
times his  life  for  others.  Spinoza  tried  in  vain  to  de- 
duce all  practical  ethics  from  that  root,  the  striving 
to  maintain  one's  own  existence ;  and  no  one  since 
his  day  has  done  any  better.  But  how  do  we  pass 
from  the  one  to  the  other?  More  and  more  widely 
it  is  being  seen  that  the  bridge  from  the  self-cen- 
tered life  of  the  animal  to  the  social  morality  of 
man  has  been  built  by  faith  in  supernatural  powers 
and  is  forever  pillared  upon  religious  experience. 
The  fact  is  described  in  different  ways  according  to 
the  method  of  approach,  but  the  agreement  of 
thinkers  upon  this  matter  is  growing  more  and 
more  impressive.^ 


» "  Das  Wesen  der  Religion."  2nd  Ed.  p.  20. 

^Cf.  quotation  above  p.  223. 

'For  example  compare  with  Mr.  Kidd's  form  of  statement 
what  Bagehot  says  when  speaking  of  law  as  "the  primary 
want  of  mankind  " — "  To  gain  that  obedience,  the  primary 
condition  is  the  identity — not  the  union,   but  the  sameness — 

227 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

Whatever  may  be  the  defects  of  Mr.  Benjamin 
Kidd's  definition  of  religion  or  of  his  curious,  but 
not  inexplicable,  use  of  the  term  "  ultra^rational,"  he 
has  certainly  described  the  function  of  religion  in 
the  development  of  society  in  a  most  suggestive 
manner.  Religion  has  stood,  as  it  were,  between 
individual  impulse  and  social  obligation,  curbing 
the  former  and  quickening  the  latter.  The  former 
is  the  spring  of  all  conduct  and,  if  unregulated, 
would  lead  only  to  selfish  action;  but  impulse  is 
regulated  by  the  demands  of  law  or  of  social 
obligation,  and  this  is  supported  by  the  authority 
of  the  powers  who  are  worshiped,  whether  in 
faith  or  in  fear.  However  crudely  some  religions 
have  expressed  the  essential  element  of  this  relig- 
ious instinct,  that  which  seems  common  to  them 
all,  so  far  as  they  have  become  forces  in  society, 
has  been  that  sense  of  responsibility  to  some  power 
which  is  above  both  the  individual,  whose  impul- 
ses stir  him  to  selfish  action,  and  society,  which 
demands  that  he  shall  live  for  it.  Manifestly 
the  higher  conception  of  that  power  which  is  over 
both  the  individual  and  his  social  environment,  will 
lead  to  a  higher  conception  of  the  mutual  relations 
of  the  members  of  society.  It  is  here  that  we 
must  look  for  the  deej)est  explanation  of  the  varied 
effects  produced  by  the  religions  of  the  world. 
That  which    any   people    believed    the    supreme 


of  what  we  now  call  'church'  and  '  state'.     The  king  must  be 

priest  and  prophet  king — the  two  must  say  the  same  because 

they  are  the  same."     Works  (American  ed.  )  Vol.  IV,  p.  440. 

228 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

powers  to  be,  has  been  one  of  the  main  roots  of 
their  history  and  of  their  place  in  civihzation. 
And  yet,  as  Kobertson  Smith  pointed  out  in  a  very 
striking  passage,  all  heathen  religions  have  fail- 
ed to  reach  the  conception  of  sui^ernal  powers  that 
possessed  a.  fixed  as  well  as  a  noble  or  ideal  character.' 
A  Greek  or  a  Roman  god  or  goddess,  might  repre- 
sent or  idealize  a  certain  virtue,  but  that  had  little 
or  no /o?'ce  in  compelling  obedience  to  that  virtue. 
In  fact  Rome  had  never  so  many  altars  to  deified 
virtues,  as  in  the  period  of  her  decay.  The  higher 
the  place  of  a  deity  in  the  hierarchy  of  heaven  the 
more  vague  and  unmeaning  was  his  character. 
Surrounded  with  loftier  dignity,  clothed  with  the 
majesty  of  physical  power  or  superhuman  wisdom 
he  might  be;  but  his  moral  nature,  where  it  was 
not  evil,  was  at  least  indistinct,  and  exercised  little 
or  no  influence  upon  the  actual  motives  of  men. 

Here  we  meet  one  of  the  most  difficult  problems 
in  the  history  of  religion.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  religion  has  been  a  moulding  force,  has  acted 
beneficially  in  providing  some  kind  of  sanction  for 
those  tribal  and  national  customs  which,  however 
crude  or  far  from  a  true  morality,  yet  seem  to 
maintain  order  and  lay  the  foundation  of  civiliza- 
tion: on  the  other  hand  we  find  that  throughout 
the  heathen  world  the  deities  which  have  been  at 
any  period  most  profoundly  worshiped,  whether 
in  faith  or  in  fear,  have  reflected  the  current  moral- 
ity of    the   people.      That   there  has  been  action 


"  The  Prophets  of  Israel "  Ed.  2  p.  66. 
229 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

and  reaction  between  the  character  of  the  people 
and  the  character  of  their  deities  is  evident.  How 
to  state  the  terms  of  that  mutual  influence  is 
the  delicate  task. 

But  now,  in  the  Religion  of  Revelation,  we  find 
that  the  two  fundamental  requisites,  which  no  other 
Religion  has  been  able  to  describe  even  as  ideals 
with  any  approach  to  fulness  and  accuracy,  are 
fulfilled.  On  the  one  hand,  the  Object  of  Christian 
faith  is  a  Being  who  is  manifested  as  at  once  holy 
and  loving.  He  has  a  Character  which  we  dare  not 
judge,  because  it  judges  all  men,  which  we  cannot 
praise  except  in  worship,  whose  vision  has  given  the 
world  a  new  morality,  a  new  hope,  and  is  giving 
individual  men  a  new  heart.  On  the  other  hand, 
this  Being,  the  living  God,  is  manifested  as  seeking 
and  securing  the  fellowship  of  men.  All  heathen 
attempts  at  worship,  at  prayer,  at  incantation  or  at 
prophecy,  at  philosophic  scrutiny  of  the  Highest 
Good  or  at  mystic  absorption  in  the  thought  of  the 
All,  the  One,  the  unchanging  Eternal,  are  at  last  re- 
buked and  blessed,  crowned  and  cursed.  For  now 
God  enters  into  a  living  intercourse  with  men  in  the 
person  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  eternal  character  is  re- 
vealed, and  revealed  in  the  double  act  of  redeeming 
by  a  supreme  sacrifice  and  of  establishing  an  eternal 
fellowship  with  men.  That  is  Christianity.  It  is 
the  fulfilment  of  those  instincts  which  worked  in  the 
heart  of  all  religions;  and  yet  it  is  at  the  same  time, 
the  condemnation  of  all  in  those  religions  that  was 
"of  sin  "  and  led  men  into  darkness  and  despair. 

We    are    learning    to=day    to    appreciate   more 

230 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

accurately  the  stages  by  which  this  wondrous 
result  has  been  reached.  When  we  stand  with 
Abraham  and  behold  in  his  faith  the  faint  begin- 
nings of  monotheism;  when  we  trace  the  growth  of 
that  faith  through  the  critical  periods  of  Israel's 
history;  when  we  realize  that  here  a  new  phenome- 
non is  before  us,  namely,  a  faith  which  grows  purer 
and  stronger,  instead  of  baser  and  weaker,  with  the 
flight  of  time,  one  which  becomes  grander  and 
deeper  in  its  intellectual  assertions  instead  of  fall- 
ing away  into  the  inept,  the  vague,  the  puerile, — 
then  the  conception  of  a  God  who  has  taken  hold  of 
individual  men  and  of  man's  history  assumes  an 
overwhelming  authority.  When  at  last  we  see  and 
watch  and  prove  Jesus  Christ,  and  find  that  through 
Him  we  have  a  life  of  intercourse  with  God,  the 
evidence  becomes  irresistible  that  here  at  last  the 
real  relations  of  mankind  to  the  Eternal  are  made 
known,  that  now  a  fellowship  with  God  can  be  ex- 
perienced which  will  carry  the  moral  nature  of  each 
man  forward  to  its  true  glory. 

In  fine,  we  see  in  Christianity  the  ideal  of  the 
divine  character  and  the  ideal  of  man's  fellowship 
with  God  both  realized.  No  man  can  possibly  pict- 
ure either  of  these  ideals  in  a  fashion  which  shall 
surpass  the  manner  in  which  Jesus  Christ  has  pre- 
sented them  to  us.  Else  were  that  man  a  greater 
benefactor  to  the  race,  a  truer  Savior,  a  more  sub- 
lime and  convincing  personality  than  Jesus  Himself. 
The  perfect  God  and  the  way  of  man's  ever  perfect 
fellowshiiD  with  Him!  Any  whisper  of  another 
destiny  or  another  religion,  which  the  world  may 

231 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

have  heard  since  that  revelation  was  made,  has  only 
been  heard  to  be  scorned  as  poorer,  meaner,  less 
worthy  of  God  and  of  man,  and  therefore  false. 
Here  religion  burning  with  its  intensest  bliss  and 
morality  shining  with  its  utmost  beauty,  are  inter- 
fused. Here  a  personal  fellowship  with  God  is  not 
separated  from,  but  inwardly  united  with,  charac- 
ter. It  depends  on,  it  flows  from  the  character  of 
God:  and  it  creates  in  man  the  image  of  the  divine, 
the  Christlike  character. 

But  this  experience  of  fellowship  with  God, 
while  itself  as  inscrutable  as  thought  or  feeling  or 
life,  can  be  and  must  be  tested  in  its  manifesta- 
tions. Such  an  experience,  if  it  be  real,  can  only 
be  founded  upon  unique  events,  propagated  by 
unique  means,  and  manifested  in  unique  effects, 
among  the  characters  and  lives  of  men  and  of  na- 
tions. 

In  the  preceding  chapters  we  have  been  attempt- 
ing to  watch  some  of  the  forces  which  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  bringing  to  bear  upon  the  human 
race  as  a  whole.  We  have  seen  that  it  alone  of  all 
religions  has  been  able,  without  the  exercise  of 
physical  force  or  external  prestige,  to  propagate 
its  life  amongst  all  races  and  classes  of  men.  We 
have  seen  that,  alike  in  its  nature  as  a  religion  and 
in  its  actual  operation  throughout  the  world,  it 
alone  can  claim  to  be  a  universal  religion.  The 
study  of  the  spread  of  Christianity  during  this  cen- 
tury has  shown  us  both  the  means  through  which, 
and  the  manner  in  which,  it  is  taking  hold  of  the 
heart  and  life  of  humanity.     Through  the  gift   of 

232 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

the  Scriptures  which  present  a  common  basis  and 
a  supreme  standard  of  religious  ideals  and  experi- 
ence to  all  men;  through  the  work  of  education 
which  this  religion  has  naturally  stimulated  and 
which  it  finds  necessary  to  its  own  true  life  and 
deepest  influence;  through  the  work  of  transform- 
ing individual  moral  character  which  Christianity 
has  from  the  beginning  accounted  its  supreme  vis- 
ible task;  through  the  impulse  which  it  has  given 
to  what  we  call  the  civilization  of  savage  races,  an 
impulse  which,  so  far  as  one  can  see,  they  were  not 
receiving  and  were  not  likely  to  receive  from  any 
other  source;  through  these  various  instrumen- 
talities Christianity  has  proved  itself  a  living 
force  of  universal  significance. 

We  see  this  force  drawing  all  nations  together 
through  one  common  faith  and  worship,  through 
the  possession  of  one  moral  ideal  and  one  eternal 
hope.  We  see  it  fitting  men  to  sustain  the  posi- 
tions of  trust  in  which  the  growth  of  civilization 
places  them.  We  see  it  molding  their  characters, 
and  so  making  human  progress  possible  wherever 
man  breathes  and  this  gospel  is  preached.  In  fact, 
this  force  has  been,  before  the  eyes  of  this  gener- 
ation and  on  a  scale  unequaled  in  history,  acting 
as  the  principal  cause  of  that  which  we  all  feel 
to  be  a  reality  and  which  we  rejoice  in  as  "the 
progress  of  man." 

There  are  four  features  connected  with  the 
spread  of  the  Christian  faith  in  heathendom  which 
seem  to  need  special  remark  in  their  relation  to 
the  progress  of  which  we  have  been  speaking. 

233 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

1.  It  has  been  said  by  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer, 
in  describing  the  "Theological  Bias,"^  that  the 
Christian  man  who  is  a  theologian,  is  apt  to  pass 
over  "  the  proofs  found  everywhere,  that  a  people 
is  no  more  capable  of  suddenly  receiving  a  higher 
form  of  religion  than  it  is  capable  of  suddenly  re- 
ceiving a  higher  form  of  government;  and  that 
inevitably  with  such  religion,  as  with  such  govern- 
ment, there  will  go  on  a  degradation  which  pres- 
ently reduces  it  to  one  differing  but  nominally  from 
its  predecessor."  One  feels  tempted  to  enter  a  vig- 
orous denial  that  proofs  of  that  last  affirmation  are 
"  found  everywhere."  Undoubtedly  the  proof  may 
be  "  found  everywhere  "  that  many  converts  from 
heathenism  to  Christianity  do  not  honorably  adorn 
the  doctrine  of  the  New  Testament.  We  have 
already  dealt  with  the  fact  that  in  the  general  loos- 
ening from  old  sanctions  and  customs  some  moral 
disasters  take  place.  It  no  doubt  does  happen 
that  the  profession  of  the  white  man's  religion  is 
felt  by  many  to  give  them  a  kind  of  social  pres- 
tige and  so  exalts  them  unduly  in  their  own  eyes. 
The  very  association  of  an  intimate  and  confi- 
dential kind  which  the  converts  enjoy  with  the 
white  man  tends  to  create  in  some,  conceit,  lazi- 
ness and  selfishness.  But  these  phenomena  are 
not  unparalleled  in  the  New  Testament  descrip- 
tions of  the  life  of  the  early  Church.  It  must 
also  be  admitted  that  when  a  community  of  fresh 
converts  is  left  too  soon  to  manage  its  own  aflPairs, 


^  "The study  of  Sociology."  (Appletou  &  Co.,  N.  Y.)  p.  301. 

234: 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

the  spirit  and  methods  of  management  will  some- 
times contain  elements  that  are  ignorant  and 
heathen.  The  general  aspect  of  such  a  commu- 
nity might  seem  to  casual  observers  to  "  differ 
but  nominally  from  "  what  preceded.  But  there 
is  another  side  to  the  question.  That  which  is 
fatally  WTong  in  Mr.  Spencer's  assertion  is  the  im- 
plication that  "the  degradation"  he  refers  to  is 
final.  It  is  no  such  thing.  Nowhere  in  the  mis- 
sionary field,  so  far  as  I  have  heard,  is  the  charac- 
ter of  Christian  converts  persistently  declining. 
On  the  contrary  it  is  everywhere  persistently  ad- 
vancing. Out  of  the  first,  the  inevitable,  moral 
confusion  and  intellectual  errors,  the  converts  are 
passing  into  a  clearer  life  and  loftier  apjprehensions 
of  the  truth. 

There  are  enemies  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  some 
of  them  even  exponents  of  evolutionary  philosophy, 
who,  when  they  deal  with  the  truth  or  untruth  of 
Christianity,  argue  from  premises  that  are  quite 
unworthy  of  evolutionists.  They  appear  to  as- 
sume that  if  Christianity  be  true,  if  the  Spirit  of 
Christ  be  the  very  power  of  God  Himself,  then 
the  social  effects  of  the  Spirit  ought  to  be  sudden, 
catastrophic,  miraculous.  They  do  not  seem  to  be 
able  to  conceive  of  Christianity  as  the  appearing 
in  history  of  the  latest  evolutionary  force,  whose 
task  it  is  to  take  up  and  use  for  its  own  character- 
istic ends  the  material  presented  in  human  nature 
as  it  previously  existed,  unredeemed  and  unrecon- 
ciled with  God. 

We  have  found  in  the  preceding  chapters  ample 

235 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ground  for  the  opinion  that  the  action  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  in  and  upon  the  history  of  the  race 
may  be  truly  described  as  an  evolutionary  influ- 
ence. It  is  true  that  Christianity  affirms  the  con- 
nection of  every  man  thus  influenced  with  God 
Himself,  and  there  are  those  who  have  so  poor  a 
conception  both  of  God  and  the  universe,  not  to 
speak  of  the  conditions  of  evolution,  as  to  imag- 
ine that  the  presupposition  of  direct  personal  con- 
tact between  God  and  human  beings  would  destroy 
the  reality  of  the  evolutionary  process.  Neverthe- 
less when  we  concentrate  our  attention  upon  the 
work  of  the  Christian  religion,  comparing  its  in- 
fluence upon  the  progress  of  man  with  the  influ- 
ence exercised  by  other  religions,  and  studying  its 
relation  to  these,  the  history  of  the  missionary 
movement,  of  the  self  ^propagation  of  the  Christian 
religion  in  our  century,  will  be  found  capable  of 
analysis  and  description  like  any  other  aspect  or 
element  of  social  evolution.  The  inflow  of  Euro- 
pean civilization  upon  the  vast  territories  of  North 
America  provides  us  on  every  hand  with  interesting 
illustrations  of  these  phenomena.  One  can  look 
out  upon  wide  prairie  regions  which  a  few  years 
ago  were  covered  with  wild  grasses  and  dense  for- 
ests, but  which  to-day  are  plowed,  and  sown  with 
grain,  and  dotted  over  with  villages  and  cities. 
The  present  aspect  is  as  unlike  the  former  as  could 
be  conceived.  And  yet  there  has  been  no  break 
in  the  operation  of  the  principle  of  continuity. 
All  may  seem  strange,  and  even  in  some  aspects 
supernatural,  to  the  wondering  gaze  of  an  aborigin- 

236 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

al  Indian.  At  first  he  may  have  thought  the  white 
man  a  god  and  his  powers  derived  from  other 
worlds.  He  was  only  ignorant  of  the  extent  of  the 
relations  of  the  North  American  continent  and  of 
the  possibilities  lying  buried  in  the  soil  under  his 
feet.  So  it  is  with  the  relations  of  the  Christian 
religion  to  the  soil  of  heathendom,  indeed  of  uni- 
versal humanity.  There  it  finds  rank  grasses, 
jungles  of  superstition  and  horror.  But  it  comes 
to  the  soil  with  a  new  seed  and,  behold  its  power! 
Amongst  peoples  who  only  seem  capable  of  idola- 
try and  witchcraft,  and  into  whose  minds  the 
thought  of  a  high  morality  hardly  entered,  it  has 
proved  itself  capable  of  producing  the  fairest  fruits 
of  pureness  and  love,  of  honor  and  self=sacrifice. 
Just  as  in  North  America  new  crops  supplant  the 
old,  new  kinds  of  buildings  and  means  of  transport 
take  the  place  of  the  Indian  wigwam  and  canoe, 
so  does  the  student  observer  see  this  universal  re- 
ligion take  the  place  of  the  other  religions  of  the 
world.  It  does  so  just  because  in  the  struggle  for 
existence  it  proves  itself  more  capable  than  these, 
its  competitors,  of  fulfilling  those  functions  which 
are  peculiar  to  religion  in  the  development  of  the 
nature  and  history  of  man. 

We  have  seen  why  it  is  that  the  earlier  and 
ruder  conditions  of  society  must  give  way  as 
soon  as  progress  begins.  Destruction  is,  in  nature, 
always  the  accompaniment  of  upbuilding.  The 
new  displaces  the  old.  The  heightening  of  the  ideal 
of  personal  comfort  or  of  social  relationship  will 
heighten  the  ideals  of  personal  character;  the  latter 

237 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

again  tend  to  call  forth  greater  exertions  of  self- 
control.  While  in  this  manner  the  sense  of 
personal  inadequacy  and  moral  failure  may  be 
deepened,  the  hope  of  a  better  self  is  set  before  the 
individual  and  becomes  a  spiritual  energy. 

2.  This  is  what  the  Christian  religion  would 
seem  to  have  been  doing  before  the  eyes  of  this 
century.  It  is  apparently  unable  to  meet  with  a 
race  which  proves  itself  entirely  incapable  of  social 
redemption.  True,  we  hear  very  frequently  of 
so-called  "decadent  races."  Even  a  writer  so 
moderate  and  careful  as  M.  Elisee  Eeclus  has 
said:  "One  tribe  is  in  full  course  of  progressive 
evolution,  another  in  incontestable  decay."  *  This 
appears  to  mean  that  there  are  certain  races  whose 
moral  and  social  condition  is  of  such  a  nature  that 
they  are  being  gradually  destroyed  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  Or  it  may  mean,  as  we  sometimes  hear 
it  expressed,  that  a  race  has  lost  its  vital  energy 
and  is  for  that  reason  dying  out.  This  "vital 
energy  "  is  one  of  those  abstractions  which  occupy 
so  much  place  in .  loose  thinking  and  are  used  to 
fill  up  so  many  of  the  lacunae  in  our  knowledge, 
but  which  do  not  really  help  to  clear  thought  or 
solid  conclusions.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  races 
which  are  disappearing  are  doing  so,  either  as  in 
Greenland  through  the  enormous  diminution  of 
the  population  by  epidemic  diseases,  or,  as  among 
certain  South  African  tribes  and  more  evidently  in 
the  case  of  the  Australian  and  New  Zealand  aborig- 


^  Contemporary  Review,  Dec.  1896.    Art.  "Progress,"  p.  761. 
238 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ines  by  the  destructive  assault  of  peoples  possessed 
of  superior  weapons  of  war;  or,  as  in  the  case  of 
some  tribes,  through  the  spread  of  European  vices, 
which  are  extremely  fatal  in  their  effects  amongst 
such  people  on  account  of  their  ignorance  and  the 
simplicity  of  their  past  experience.  But  over 
against  the  so  called  decadence,  which  one  would 
rather  call  the  destruction  of  these  races,  one  must 
place  the  change  which  is  being  produced  upon 
certain  tribes  which  were  once  in  their  position  or 
even  undergoing  '  decadence.'  There  are,  for  ex- 
ample, hill  tribes  in  India  which  undoubtedly 
were  conquered  and  driven  to  the  hills  by  races 
superior  in  warlike  methods.  Their  refuge  in  the 
highlands  was  probably  the  sole  cause  of  their 
deliverance  from  destruction.  These  hill  tribes 
having  now  come  in  contact  with  Christianity  give 
promise  of  manifesting  an  energy  and  vitality  quite 
inconsistent  with  the  theory  of  their  decadence  or 
the  exhaustion  of  their  blood.  A  few  years  of  rum- 
selling  and  of  contact  with  traders  and  sailors 
would  have  probably  swept  the  inhabitants  of 
Tierra  del  Fuego  out  of  existence.  But  Christian 
civilization  has  begun  to  take  hold  of  them  and  has 
wrought  a  change  so  marvelous  as  to  have  elicited 
the  admiration  of  Charles  Darwin,  and  that  famous 
annual  subscription  of  five  pounds  to  the  society 
working  amongst  them.  The  North  American  In- 
dians were  no  doubt "  decadent  "  one  hundred  years 
ago.  But  since  they  were  protected  from  the  rav- 
ages of  rum  and  the  tricks  of  unscrupulous  dealers, 
and  are  becoming  amenable  to  Christian  education, 

239 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

they  have  increased  steadily  in  numbers.  It  is 
time  that  the  word  "decadent"  were  used  with 
more  discrimination  regarding  the  causes  which 
work  the  destruction  of  a  people  and  the  forces 
which  may  intervene  to  prevent  it. 

3.  By  large  numbers  it  is  taken  for  granted 
that  the  goal  of  human  history  will  be  reached  in 
this  world.  Many  who  know  better  yet  allow 
themselves  to  put  most  emphasis  upon  the  prospect 
of  an  age  when,  amid  things  seen  and  temporal, 
mankind  will  be  perfected.  They  do  this  chiefly 
for  purposes  of  practical  exhortation.  According- 
ly we  have  many  dreams  of  the  time  when  the  re- 
lations of  each  to  all  will  be  in  perfect  equipose, 
when  the  outward  and  the  inward  life  of  every  man 
will  be  in  ideal  harmony.  It  would  not  be  im- 
possible to  present  arguments  of  considerable  force 
against  the  theory  that  man  has  a  right  to  picture 
his  heaven  upon  earth,  or  to  picture  the  time  when 
his  descendants  will  at  last  stand  perfect  amid  a 
perfected  race  under  these  skies.  It  may  be  said 
that,  as  of  our  spiritual  ancestors  so  of  our  suc- 
cessors, they  without  us  shall  not  be  made  perfect. 

On  the  one  hand  we  have  the  very  clear  assertions 
of  science  that  the  present  structure  of  our  world 
cannot  last  forever.  Few  facts  have  been  borne  in 
upon  the  minds  of  many  agnostics  with  more  dis- 
mal effect  than  this,  that  visible,  physical  evolution 
must  have  a  distant  but  definite  and  inevitable  end. 
Professor  Huxley  in  his  Romanes  Lecture  said: 
"  The  theory  of  evolution  encourages  no  millennial 
anticipations.      If,  for  millions  of  years,  our  globe 

240 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

has  taken  the  upward  road,  yet,  sometime,  the  sum- 
mit will  be  reached  and  the  downward  route  will  be 
commenced.  The  most  daring  imagination  will 
hardly  venture  upon  the  suggestion  that  the  pow- 
er and  the  intelligence  of  man  can  ever  arrest  the 
procession  of  the  great  year."  ^  The  note  of  cheer 
which  the  famous  lecturer  tried  to  infuse  into  the 
sentences  which  follow  that  passage  was  not  reassur- 
ing. His  assurance  that  we  may  still  have  much 
to  live  for  does  not  dispel  our  conviction  that  even 
his  strong  heart  needed  to  rouse  itself  with  much 
energy  from  the  gloomy  depression  of  that  pros- 
pect. Men  can  hardly  believe  with  their  whole 
heart  that  the  race  is  doomed  to  extinction  and  yet 
live  as  if  the  future  were  all  bright.  A  Huxley 
might  have  the  courage  to  say  that  we  must  work 
for  such  progress  as  is  possible  while  we  may. 
The  ordinary  citizen  will  feel  that  the  very  mean- 
ing of  progress  is  destroyed  and  that  the  inspira- 
tion has  gone  from  life.  Despair  about  the  des- 
tiny of  the  race  will  stop  progress;  it  will  send  man 
back  to  the  life  of  brutes  that  perish  in  a  brutal 
scheme  of  things. 

But  to  my  mind  the  most  startling  fact  about 
this  conception  of  a  heaven  on  earth  is,  that  it 
has  never  received  the  sanction  of  any  religion. 
No  religion,  and  of  course  philosophical  theories 
and  ethical  aspirations  of  individual  men  are  ex- 
cluded from  this  assertion,  no  religion  which  has 
taken  hold  of  the  hearts  of  men  and  ruled  them. 


^"ilYolution  and  Ethics."      (Appletou  &  Co.,  ^[.  Y.)     p.  85^ 
HI 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

and  which  has  given  powerful  impulses  to  human 
progress,  has  ever  pictured  the  ideal  condition  of 
man  as  being  attainable  in  this  world.  All  relig- 
ions look  forward  into  the  future.  Not  even  of 
Buddhism  can  it  be  said  that  it  presents  an  ideal 
of  human  progress  without  the  vision  of  a  future 
life  or  with  the  vision  of  an  earthly  bliss;  for  while 
it  is  true  that  it  refuses  to  consider  the  continuance 
of  conscious  life  as  anything  but  a  disaster,  it  re- 
fuses also  for  that  very  reason  to  present  any  pic- 
ture of  a  social  ideal.  For  the  Buddhist  the  end 
of  all  things  is  to  escape  self^^consciousness;  and 
towards  that  his  best  energies  are  directed. 

As  we  have  said  before,  that  which  nearly  all 
religions,  and  certainly  those  which  have  been 
most  influential  in  the  history  of  society,  have 
more  or  less  dimly  foreshadowed,  has  been  some 
kind  of  contact  between  mankind  and  a  power  or 
powers  conceived  of  as  supreme.  The  ideal  im- 
plied in  this  yearning  of  man's  prophetic  heart  came 
to  fullest  light  in  Judaism  and  to  fulfilment  in 
Christianity,  namely,  a  life  of  perfected  personal 
relations  with  the  living  God  through  His  Revealer 
and  our  Savior.  But  nowhere  is  it  suggested  in 
the  New  Testament  that  the  aim  of  Christ  was  to 
perfect  mankind  here;  the  whole  of  His  own  teach- 
ing and  certainly  the  entire  religious  experience  of 
the  apostles  refute  such  a  notion.  "  Our  citizen- 
ship is  in  heaven,"  said  Paul,  and  he  lived  from 
and  for  that  assurance.  "  It  is  not  yet  manifested 
what  we  shall  be,"  said  John,  and  he  lived  by  the 
hope  set  on  Him  who  was  his  ideal  of  personal 

3421 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

pureness.  Even  the  doctrine  of  the  Kingdom, 
which  many  describe  as  if  the  Savior  had  limited 
it  to  this  world,  is  tantalizing  for  the  very  fact 
that  at  times  it  shimmers  between  heaven  and 
earth,  and  at  times  is  concerned  wholly  with  the 
life  which  is  to  come.  It  is  never  altogether  an 
institution  of  this  world. 

The  history  of  modern  missions  proves  that,  to- 
day as  in  the  first  century,  the  newborn  hope  of  a 
future  glory,  which  is  personally  assured  to  the 
Christian  heart,  exerts  an  enormous  power  over  the 
present  life.  No  more  shallow  criticism  of  Chris- 
tianity could  be  made,  none  which  ignores  facts 
more  amazingly,  than  that  the  intense  hope  of 
heaven  weakens  the  service  of  man  upon  the  earth. 
A  psychological  theorist  might  show  some  strong 
reasons  for  expecting  such  a  result,  but  the  uni- 
versal experience  of  the  Christian  Church  disproves 
it.  When  the  love  and  hope  of  heaven  are  real  and 
potent  over  the  saint's  imagination,  then  he  begins 
to  pray,  "  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  even  as  it  is 
done  in  heaven";  and  when  men  mean  that  prayer, 
they  begin  to  work  for  its  realization.  The  loss  of 
that  vision  of  a  sphere  where  the  divine  will  is 
universally  obeyed,  makes  it  less  possible  for  men  to 
cherish  in  their  hearts  a  burning  desire  to  see  that 
will  realized  among  men.  The  loss  of  that  infinite 
future  casts  gloom  upon  earth.  The  fading  of  the 
Christian  hope  is  the  paralysis  of  altruism.  Indeed 
a  dim  heaven  makes  all  prayer  less  full  of  interest 
and  significance. 

It  is  not  easy  for  theoretical  critics  of  Christian- 

243 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

ity  to  realize  how  and  why  it  is  that  this  faith, 
which  at  heart  lives  on  the  hope  of  a  future  life, 
has  done  so  much  for  this  world.  They  easily  slip 
over  the  fact,  which  will  bear  the  deepest  and  most 
thorough  scrutiny,  that  it  is  love  which  unites  the 
cherishing  of  that  hope  with  the  most  arduous 
labor  for  the  visible  betterment  of  human  condi- 
tions. It  is  always  love  which  labors.  The  faith 
which  confers  the  purest  love  as  a  living  force  upon 
the  hearts  of  men  must  be,  and  is,  the  mightiest 
influence  known  to  history. 

However,  while  Christianity  does  not  and  can- 
not tell  men  to  expect  the  realization  of  humanity's 
ideal  in  this  life,  yet  the  spirit  which  it  infuses 
into  man  has  given  him  the  power  to  take  the  long- 
est strides  of  which  record  can  be  found  towards 
that  very  consummation. 

The  fact  is  that  we  see,  and  are  in  the  midst  of,  a 
universe  which  is  all  in  the  making.  If  any  part 
of  nature  had  reached  repose,  had  attained  her  ideal, 
there  might  be  ground  for  the  expectation  or  the 
longing  that  man  may  share  in  that  perfection  here 
and  now.  On  the  contrary  everything  is  in  move- 
ment, we  think  it  is  a  movement  forwards.  The 
visible  and  the  present  is  not  the  whole  fact.  We 
are  surrounded  on  every  hand  with  manifest  fail- 
ures, with  prophecies  rather  than  attainments  of  the 
ideal,  with  suggestions  of  the  perfect  beauty  and 
truth  which  nature  does  not  fulfil  in  anything 
which  is  seen.  Religion,  therefore,  is  to  be  judged 
in  the  light  of  this  fact,  that  the  heart  of  man  has 
never  felt  the  present  form  of  human  history  to  be 

2M 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

that  on  which  the  highest  hopes  could  be  centered. 
We  must  not  ask  more  of  religion  than  she  professes 
to  accomplish,  nor  of  the  Christian  religion  that 
she  should  fulfil  a  function  which  in  her  heart  of 
hearts  she  passionately  repudiates,  viz.,  to  give 
man  bliss  in  this  world.  That  which  Chris- 
tianity professes  to  be  is  a  power  that  can  lead 
humanity  towards  its  ideal  in  the  eternal  world, 
and  there  to  reach  the  perfect  man.  Her  power  to 
do  that  is  essentially  bound  up  with  her  power  to 
manifest  the  main  outlines  and  qualities  of  that 
life,  at  least  in  their  moral  aspects,  even  amidst 
the  imperfect  conditions  of  the  present.  If  man 
is  made  for  an  immortal  life,  if  in  some  future  state 
of  existence  all  the  generations  that  have  been  and 
all  that  are  yet  to  pass  through  this  world,  shall 
meet  face  to  face  in  the  marvelous  communion  of 
an  eternal  experience,  then  the  above  is  all  that 
the  ideal  religion  ought  to  do.  It  is  all  that  the 
Christian  religion  professes  to  do. 

Now  the  purpose  of  the  preceding  chapters 
has  been  to  deal  with  a  few  sections  of  the 
evidence  which  can  be  offered  in  support  of  the 
claims  of  Christianity  to  be  the  final  religion.  The 
spread  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  through  the 
heathen  world  has  afforded  illustrations  of  a  most 
remarkable,  vivid  and  imiDressive  nature,  of  the 
power  which  this  religion  possesses.  This  power 
it  has  manifested,  first,  by  gradually  removing  and 
probably  making  impossible  any  other  form  of  re- 
ligion. The  day  seems  to  be  not  far  distant,  as  we  have 
seen,  when  the  peoples  of  India  and  China,  not  to 

245 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

mention  other  and  smaller  lands,  will  have  lost 
their  confidence  in  the  forms  of  worship  which 
they  have  hitherto  practised  and  in  the  beliefs 
which  have  nourished  that  practice.  No  less  clear- 
ly has  the  Christian  religion  manifested  its  extra- 
ordinary power  of  seizing  those  depths  of  human 
nature  which  those  other  religions  had  only  im- 
perfectly controlled,  of  actually,  visibly  raising 
mankind,  making  the  race  move  onwards  towards 
loftier  ideals  of  personal  and  of  social  life. 

4.  But  this  approximate  realization  of  the  ideal 
is  made  possible  by  the  Christian  religion  accord- 
ing to  its  own  teaching,  only  as  it  is  able  to  bring 
mennowinio  actual,  conscious,  personal,  fellowship 
with  God  through  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  true  that 
within  the  range  of  the  Church  there  have  been 
many  and  serious  divergencies  of  statement  re- 
garding this  life  of  fellowship  with  God.  We  may 
emphasize  for  example  the  distinction  between 
Latin  Christianity  and  the  doctrine  of  the  Evan- 
gelical Churches,^  where  disagreements  of  the  most 
startling  nature  will  be  found.  Nevertheless  a 
glance  into  the  higher  devotional  literature  of  the 
Koman  Church,  even  in  this  century,  will  prove 
that  to  the  whole  of  Christendom  the  experience  of 
a  present  and  conscious  fellowship  with  God  con- 
stitutes the  essence  of  Christianity.^     Disputation 


'Cf.  "Social  Evolution."  By  Benjamin  Kidd,  (pop.  ed.) 
p.  319. 

2  A  young  missionary  from  Africa  closed  an  address  before 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  by  saying:  "  The  one  reason 
for  my  success  in  Africa  was  the  reality  of  the  presence  and 

2iG 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

regarding  some  of  the  means  and  manifestations 
of  that  fellowship  leaves  much  common  ground  be- 
tween these  great  sections  of  Christendom. 

The  consciousness  of  fellowship  with  God  is  the 
heart  of  this  religion.  Without  that  all  its  doc- 
trines and  precepts  lose  either  their  meaning  or 
their  efficacy  or  both.  It  is  the  intense  personal  re- 
alization of  contact  with  God  Himself,  which  ac- 
cording to  their  own  testimony  has  sent  out  all 
those  thousands  of  foreign  missionaries  into  the 
fields  of  heathendom,  and  which  has  stimulated 
tens  of  thousands  of  men  and  women  in  the  home 
land,  to  follow  them  with  their  sympathies,  their 
prayers,  oftentimes  their  tears,  as  well  as  with 
material  sustenance.  Further,  the  missionaries 
have  found  that  into  this  experience  of  a  fellow- 
ship with  God,  identical  in  nature  with  their  own 
and  with  that  which  was  attained  by  the  apostles, 
multitudes  of  heathen  men  and  women  and  chil- 
dren are  now  entering.  They  are  not  cut  off 
from  it  by  the  poverty  of  their  past  religious 
conceptions  or  the  abundance  of  their  past  vicious 
habits,  by  the  subtilty  of  their  national  mind  or 
the  utter  crudeness  of  their  previous  thought. 
They  may  be  all  mistaken  of  course,  but  the 
fact  remains  that  this  religious  movement  is  to-day 
spreading  throughout  the  world  by  arresting  in- 
dividual cannibals,  or  Brahmins  or  negroes  or  Chi- 
nese, as  apostles  of  old  were  arrested  and  as  all  the 


power  of  God  with  me  night  and  day."  "The  Gospel  Message. 
By  R.  N.  Cust,  LL.  D.,  p.  81. 

247 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

scholars  and  saints  of  Christendom  have  been  ar- 
rested and  brought  into  the  divine  life.  More- 
over we  have  seen  that  the  experience  of  this  re- 
lationship with  God  begins  to  transform  character, 
and  as  character  is  transformed,  civilization  makes 
progress  amongst  all  peoples.  It  is  a  gradual 
work,  of  course.  The  miracle  is  not  wrought 
in  a  moment.  This  force  works,  like  all  others, 
in  time.  Converts  are  not  often  turned  into  saints 
even  in  a  decade.  Vices  are  not  quenched  through- 
out the  Christian  communities  which  are  being 
formed.  All  that  need  be  proved  as  well  as  all 
that  can  be  proved,  is  that  astounding  progress  is 
being  made;  and  that  the  Christian  religion  is  at 
the  root  of  it  all.  But  at  the  root  of  the  Christian 
religion  when  it  becomes  implanted  in  heathen 
soil  is  the  experience  of  fellowship  with  God. 
Without  that  the  Christian  religion  would  be 
powerless  in  the  opinion  of  all  those  who  know 
best  its  nature  and  possibilities. 

Christianity  is  to=day  creating  this  inward  re- 
lationship to  God  and  its  resulting  manifestations 
of  a  purer  heart  and  a  nobler  will,  on  a  scale  un- 
paralleled in  its  own  history,  and  not  only  unap- 
proached  but  undreamt  of  in  the  history  of  any 
other  religion. 

The  task  of  the  man  who  has  made  up  his  mind 
that  Christianity  is  false,  and  who  would  fain  estab- 
lish his  judgment  by  scientific  means,  is,  to  prove 
that  this  widespread  experience  of  personal  fellow- 
ship with  God  is  unreal.  Or,  to  put  it  otherwise, 
he  must  aim  at  proving  that  one  of  the  main  factors 

248 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

of  evolution  has  been  a  baseless  fabric  of  man's 
imagination  called  religion,  that  an  agelong  cause 
of  progress  has  been  only  a  miserable  misbelief. 
If  this  problem  were  presented  in  any  other 
range  of  human  experience  the  hostile  investigator 
would  find  himself  compelled  to  establish  one 
or  other  of  two  alternatives.  First  he  must 
prove  if  he  can  that  the  alleged  Object  of  faith 
does  not  exist  and  hence  that  fellowship  with 
God  is  not  the  supreme  cause  of  human  progress; 
or,  secondly,  that  the  phenomena  of  Christian  ex- 
perience, associated  in  the  minds  of  their  subjects 
with  that  one  Cause,  can  be  adequately  explained 
by  other  causes.  It  would  not  be  easy,  of  course, 
to  prove  that  God  does  not  exist.  As  the  Chris- 
tian world  unanimously  attributes  its  experience 
to  the  working  of  His  Spirit  and  as  the  attempt  has 
been  made  times  without  number  to  attack  the 
reality  of  His  existence,  we  may  take  for  granted 
that  no  man  of  our  day  desirous  of  the  reputation 
of  possessing  a  sober  mind  would  attempt  that  task. 
There  remains  then  only  the  alternative.  And 
surely  it  is  not  too  much  to  ask  that  those  who  feel 
it  their  duty  to  attack  Christian  beliefs,  should  in 
some  thorough  and  scholarly  fashion  present  us 
with  a  scientific  explanation,  not  only  of  man's  re- 
ligious experience  as  a  whole,  but  of  the  religious 
experience  of  Christendom,  an  explanation  which 
ignores  God.  The  spread  of  this  religion  as  de- 
scribed in  these  pages  affords  an  opportunity  for 
scientific  investigation  at  first  hand  which  must  be 
considered  of  inestimable  value.   Is  religion  but  the 

249 


Christianity  and  the  Progress  of  Man 

foam  on  the  surface  of  the  river  of  human  history? 
Is  Christianity  just  the  last  result  of  the  dreams 
and  the  superstitions  of  the  aflPrighted  childhood 
of  human  history?  Can  these  or  similar  positions 
be  adequately  or  scientifically  expounded  and  de- 
fended in  the  light  of  the  phenomena  presented  by 
the  missionary  movement  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury? In  view  of  all  this  it  seems  not  too  much  to 
say  that  this  movement,  when  fully  studied  in  all 
its  power  and  extent,  when  seen  to  be  intimately 
connected  with  and  to  complete  the  deepest  aspi- 
rations of  the  human  heart  and  to  exercise  in  a 
transcendent  fashion  the  permanent  functions  of 
religion,  when  seen  to  be  full  of  the  richest  and  most 
glorious  blessings  to  mankind,  and  lastly,  when 
found  to  be  dependent  upon  and  to  flow  from  an 
alleged  fellowship  v/ith  God  through  Jesus  Christ, 
leaves  us  with  only  one  or  other  of  two  conclusions. 
Either,  the  whole  movement  is  a  self-deception, 
grounded  on  folly;  or,  the  man  who  studies  it  is 
looking  into  the  very  mind  and  heart  of  the  living 
God. 

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Date  Due 

JA29'5.-: 

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